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Full text of "Middlebury College magazine. Vol. 73, No. 4 : 1999"

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Middlebury 

MAGAZINE J 


Fall 1999 

Volume 73, Number 4 
Editor 

Rachel Morton 

Alumni Editor 
Dotty McCarty 

Designer 
Pamela Fogg 

Copy Editor 
Regan Eberhart 

Production Assistant 
Judy Nelson 

Editorial Assistants 
Caroline Bodkin ’01 
Courtney Palmbush ’00 

Editorial Office 
Meeker House 
Middlebury College 
Middlebury,VT 05753 
Phone: 802-443-5670 
E-mail: middmag@middlebury.edu 
On-line: http//www.middelbury.edu/ 
^publish /midmag 

Advertising Sales Office 
Smart Communications, Inc. 

P.O. Box 283,Vergennes,VT 05491 
Phone: 802-877-2262 
E-mail: getsmart@together.net 

Other College Offices 
(all area code 802) 

College Information: 443-5183 
Alumni Office: 443-5183 
Admissions: 443-3000 

The views presented are not necessarily those of 
the editors or the official policies of the College. 



FROST ON 

THE MOUNTAIN 

i AM DEEP, DEEP in Frost country with over 120 people who have gathered 
at Bread Loaf to attend a conference on Robert Frost. Bread Loaf is hallowed 
ground for these Frost fans and scholars because Frost roamed these very corridors 
and lived just a short hike from Middlebury s mountain campus. 

The conference participants are a diverse lot, among them the usual suspects 
(English teachers, graduate students, and poets), a large and distinguished academic 
contingent including heavy-hitters like Middlebury s own Jay Parini, Robert Pack, 
and Robert Hill, and there’s also an interesting assortment of realtors and housewives, 
businessmen and artists. 

Frost probably would have been pleased by the diversity of the crowd assembled. 
As his granddaughter, Lesley Lee Francis, mentioned in a roundtable discussion, Frost 
prided himelf on the accessibility of his poetry, a contrarian stand in 1930 when diffi¬ 
culty was a hallmark of modern poetry. 

Peter Stanlis ’42 illustrated this anti-intellectual bent with an anecdote from 1953 
when Frost read “Fire and Ice” at Bread Loaf. Afrer the reading Frost walked out onto 
the west lawn and a woman came out and said, “Oh Mr. Frost, I loved that poem you 
recited,‘Fire and Ice.’ Could you please tell me what it means?” 

“Oh sure,” Frost said. “Some say the world will end in fire,/ Some say in ice./ 
From what I’ve tasted of desire/ I hold with those who favor fire./ But if it had to 
perish twice,/ I think I know enough of hate/ To know that for destruction ice/ Is 
also great/ Aaid would suffice. 

“That’s what it means.” 

Personal anecdotes like these are the currency of this gathering. They are shared 
like precious jewels. And though people with a personal memory of Frost may be 
becoming fewer as years go by, there are still many who remember hearing Frost read 
during the middle decades of this century. Robert Burton, a retired businessman from 
Evanston, Illinois, is here today because he heard Frost read in 1948 when Burton was 
a student at the University of Iowa. Although Frost suffered terribly from shyness at 
first, he became a powerful public speaker, one people remembered hearing for years. 

About 40 years ago, Frost gave a reading at Dartmouth, and two little girls were 
taken to the event by one of their fathers. They twitched and whispered through 
the reading. When Frost finished, the father, poet Pochard Eberhart, took the girls 
firmly in hand and marched them to the front of Webster Hall to meet his friend and 
colleague. Frost solemnly shook their little hands, and they ran back to their seats, gig¬ 
gling, leaving the poets to discuss more weighty, grown-up matters. 

This is one of the few days I remember from that far back in my childhood. I was 
one of those little girls. Gretchen Eberhart was the other. Was it the grown-ups’ respect 
and awe for the man that made this memory so indelible? Or simply the aura of an 
elderly man with a shock of white hair. Whatever it was, I realize I, too, am one of 
those people carrying a tiny, but unforgettable, little jewel of Frostiana .—RM 


Middlebury College of Middlebury, VT 05753, 
published Middlebury Magazine (ISSN-0745-2454) 
four times a year: winter, spring, summer, and fall, 
c 1999, Middlebury College Publications. Middlebury 
Magazine is printed at The Lane Press in South 
Burlington,VT. Periodical postage paid at 
Middlebury,Vt., and at additional mailing offices 
(USPS 964-820). POSTMASTER: Send address 
changes to Middlebury Magazine, Middlebury 
College, Middlebury,VT 05753. Printed in U.S.A. 











Inside 



24 NEW HORIZONS 
FOR SCIENCE 

The opening of 
Bicentennial Hall marks 
a new era for Middlebnry. 

28 GOOD CHEMISTRY 

Sunhee Choi and her 
students have a special 
bond that goes beyond 
science. 

32 ROUNDING IT OUT 

Bob Pack deconstructs his 
new book of poetry. 


2 LETTERS 

Hie last word on lovers 
and other strangers. 

8 UPHILL/DOWNHILL 

The bells toll for Tim, hate 
dissected by Andrew Sullivan, 
the numbers add up for Midd. 



ACADEMIC 

MATTERS 

Hold the popcorn. Film 
screenings are serious 
business for Ted Perry. 


35 ALYA BAKER 
MOLODETS! 

Alya Baker offers a little 
Russian syntax and a lot 
of Russian soul. 

38 CLIMBING 

THE BIG WALL 

A first ascent up a remote 
arctic clifffor National 
Geographic. 


14 BOOK MARKS 

The story of Vermont 
is the story of the people 
and the land. 

18 SPORT REPORT 

A double whamtrfy with 
two-time All-American 
fohn Giannacopoulos ’00 

20 STUDENT SCENE 

Standing thigh-deep in the 
White River, they cast and 
catch the spirit of Midd. 


22 OLD CHAPEL 
VIEWS 

A geology lesson offers 
insights into how we live. 

94 POINT OF ORDER 

Resolutions for a 
new year. 

96 EDUCATED 
OPINION 

Why you should take 
a poet to lunch. 




Middlebury College 
Board ofTrustees 

President 

John M. McCardell,Jr. 

Fellows 

Frederic W. Allen 

Peter I. Bijur 

Nicholas R. Clifford 

Churchill G. Franklin 71 

Nancy Coffrin Furlong 75 

Claire Waterhouse Gargalli ’64 

Drue Cortell Gensler ’57 

Robert C. Graham, Jr. ’63 

Reed L. Harman ’68 

Jane W. Harvey ’85 

Betty Ashbury Jones, M.A. ’86 

Robert A. Jones ’59 

William H. Kieffer III ’64 

Thomas J. Knox ’84 

Roxanne McCormick Leighton ’67 

Louis Marx, Jr. 

Garrett M. Moran 76 
Michael C. Obel-Omia ’88 
Jane Bryant Quinn ’60 
Thomas P. Salmon 
Frank W.Sesno 77 
J. Lea Simonds ’69 
John Spencer 
Polyvios Vintiadis 

Emeriri 

James I. Armstrong 
Mary Williams Brackett ’36 
Allan R. Dragone, Sr. ’50 
Willard T. Jackson ’51 
Arnold R. LaForce ’35 
C. Irving Meeker ’50 
Jonathan O’Herron 
Patricia Judah Palmer ’57 
W. Kyle Prescott ’49 
Raymond J. Saulnier ’29 
David E.Thompson ’49 
Hilton A. Wick 
Robert P. Youngman ’64 


Officers of the Corporation 
Claire Waterhouse Gargalli ’64, Chair 
Churchill G. Franklin 71, Vice Chair 
Betty Ashbury Jones, M.A. ’86,Vice Chair 
Betsy Mitchell Etchells 75, Secretary 
David W. Ginevan,Treasurer 


2 Middlebury Magazine 


lOeSs 


Hindsight on Frost 

Professor Jay Parini, in his monumental 
book, Robert Frost: A Life , unknowingly 
may have helped some alumni understand 
their skeptical reactions to Frost when they 
talked with him in a Middlebury classroom 
in the 1930s. It was probably in 1936 when 
Professor Reginald Cook brought a sur¬ 
prise guest to one of his American literature 
classes. Robert Frost, who was to become 
the nations best-loved poet, received only 
mixed reviews from our group. 

I remember telling friends at lunch that 
he was “a pretty old guy” who had a hard 
time staying awake, even under “Doc” 
Cook’s persistent and enthusiastic question¬ 
ing. (Frost was only in his 60s, but to us that 
was old). He seemed very tired, even ill. 
Others thought his homespun writings 
were simplistic, and most of us didn’t agree 
with his dislike for Franklin D. Roosevelt, 
whose economic programs were helping us 
to stay in college. 

We later tried to explain to Professor 
Cook, who idolized his old friend, that we 
were not being disrespectful, just critical. 
We were products of the Depression and, in 
many ways, were as anti-establishment in 
the 1930s as our children’s generation in 
the 1970s. However, we might have been 
more sympathetic if we had known then 
what we know now, thanks to Jay Parini s 
fascinating account of the poet’s ever trou¬ 
bled life. 

At the time Frost visited our class, 
Parini reveals, he was still mourning the 
death of his daughter Maijorie in 1934, was 
caring for his seriously ill wife, Elinor, who 
died in 1938, and was concerned over the 
mental health of other family members, 
including a son who later committed sui¬ 
cide. Frost had been on a series of tiring 



Robert Frost in Ripton 

lecture trips and was diagnosed with “nerv¬ 
ous exhaustion;” all this in addition to the 
despair and anxiety he had suffered for 
most of his life. 

Despite problems which would have 
overwhelmed most people, Frost led a 
highly productive life for another quarter 
century, and we came to realize that, back 
in that classroom, we had indeed been in 
the presence of an American treasure. 

This summer, Frost’s poem “Mending 
Wall,” was cited by opponents on both sides 
of an ongoing controversy in New Jersey 
over public access to ocean beaches. One 
beach in particular, a long-time gathering 
place for Midd students and their families, 
was recently sold to developers, who 
promptly fenced it off and began to build 
multimillion dollar homes on the dunes. 

A letter writer to an area newspaper, 
trying to justify the actions of the develop¬ 
ers, quoted Frost’s well-known line, “Good 
fences make good neighbors.” 

Not so fast, wrote another letter writer, 
read on. Frost’s personal opinion on fences 
was more likely to be found in what fol¬ 
lowed: 
















“Before I built a wall I’d ask to know/ 
What I was walling in or walling out, / And 
to whom I was like to give offence./ 
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall./ 
That wants it down.” 

Would Robert Frost, the walker, take 
down the fences so he could better “hear 
the breakers’ sullen roar,” as he once wrote? 
Who knows? Don’t draw too many con¬ 
clusions from my poetry, he often said. 
Marshall Sewell '37 
Whiting, NJ 


Cost of Education 

President McCardell’s letter was certainly a 
disappointment. It was mostly about build¬ 
ings and little to do with education. Mosdy 
I was disappointed that he did not address 
the escalating cost of a Middlebury educa¬ 
tion. When I entered in 1950, the costs 
were in the hundreds of dollars and the 
endowment was $10 million. It was one of 
the more affordable, small liberal arts col¬ 
leges in the Northeast. Currendy it stands 
as one of the most expensive. Every year in 
my memory costs have risen more than the 
rate of inflation. 

I am quite sure that when adjusted for 
inflation, costs have more than doubled and 
am equally sure that the current quality of 
education is not twice as good as the excel¬ 
lent one I received. 

Hart Peterson M.D. '54 
Scituate, MA 


Restore Midd-Norwich 
Football 

I noted (Spring 1999 edition) with some 
interest that the Middlebury Panther foot¬ 
ball team will be playing an exhibition 
game in France over Thanksgiving week, in 
late November 1999. Playing this game 
gives rise to another issue: why we ever 
stopped playing Norwich, which was tradi¬ 
tionally the last game of the season for both 
teams. The “official” word from both the 
Middlebury and Northfield campuses is 
that Middlebury’s entry into their current 
league doesn’t permit another game, partic¬ 
ularly a nonleague game. So be it—rules are 
rules, even if they are dumb, and even if 
they mean the end of a long, spirited cross¬ 
state rivalry. But if Middlebury can play an 
exhibition game in France in late 




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November, why can’t they play an exhibi¬ 
tion game with Norwich in early or mid- 
November, in either Middlebury or 
Northfield? Lots of Vermonters miss the 
traditional wrap-up of the Vermont college 
football season. 

The continuation of the Middlebury- 
Norwich football rivalry should be a top 
priority for both schools. If league rules get 
in the way, call it an exhibition game, and 
play it for a deserving Vermont charity. Call 
it anything you want, but get the game 
going again! 

Edward A. Miller Jr. ’70 
Northfield , VT 


She Set High Medical 
Standards 

Turning sadly from the battle of semantics 
in your summer issue 1999,1 was delighted 
to read the class notes of the Class of 1922. 

I also congratulate Carolyne Hayward Reed 
on her birthday this past Saint Patricks 
Day. And I know well the 97th General 
Hospital in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany. 
First, it was heart warming to see that 
Carolyne Reed had seved as an army nurse 
in the Second World War. As a member of 



the Middlebury Class of 1922, she had to 
be quite a senior nurse—a major or lieu¬ 
tenant colonel perhaps. As so many 
Middlebury alumni did in that war (as evi¬ 
denced by the frequent mention of such 
service in the obituaries), she did 
Middlebury proud. Second, Carolyne 
Reed’s influence was probably still being 
felt at the 97th General Hospital in 1952 
when I took a preliminary step which 
eventually led me to Middlebury. It was 
there that I flunked four parts of the physi¬ 
cal examination for entrance to the United 
States Military Academy. By identifying dis¬ 
qualifications early, I was able to remedy 


4 Middlebury Magazine 



























them and enter West Point. In the 1960s I 
received my M.A. from Middlebury and 
returned to teach German at the Military 
Academy Thank you, Carolyne Reed—for 
your World War II service and for helping 
set high medical standards. 

Ray Bell 

M.A. German ’66 
Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY 


Reservations about Lovers 

I came upon the discussion for the first 
time reading the letters to the editor in the 
summer issue of the magazine. So though I 
didn’t see the writings that came before, I 
think I can sympathize with the editors 
reservations about the word “lover.” 

I find “lover” problematic, as apparently 
the editor did, because it clearly has strong 
associations of an illicit, purely sexual rela¬ 
tionship. A married man, or woman, mar¬ 
ried or not, took a lover. We Gay people 
have an uphill battle in teaching the het¬ 
erosexual majority that our identities have 
sexual components, just as theirs do, but just 
like the majority, we are about much more 
than sex. We are human beings first, and it 
is a gross distortion to reduce us to our sex¬ 
ual identities. 

And so what word to use to name our 
long-term sexual and emotional compan¬ 
ionships? Let it be “partner” most of the 
time, sterile as that sounds, until someone 
develops a fitting new word, and “lover” 
among those who use the word without 
the negative associations. (Maybe we 
should look to foreign languages for inspi¬ 
ration; right now I’m thinking of the 
Spanish word pareja , which means 
pair/couple and partner in the sense of a 
dance partner.) And most important, let the 
use of the word QUEER disappear. 
Regrettably it’s become a favorite among 
academics. But no matter how much you 
use it, you will not lose its pain. 

John T. Moran 
M.A. Spanish ’70 
Jackson Heights, NY 

P.S. My companion and I will observe the 
eighth anniversary of our first meeting in 
1 )ecember.Who can tell me when we’ll be 
able to say “anniversary of our marriage?” 



Treasures of Deceit: Archaeology 
and the Forger’s Craft 

September 14-Octobcr 3 1 

Horatio Greenough: 

An American Sculptor’s 
Drawings 

September 14-December 12 


Student Video Productions 

November 16-December 12 


Music From China 

November 13 


Our Town 

By Thornton Wilder 
Directed by Claudio 
Medeiros '90 
October 28-31 


The Clerks 5 
Group 

November 17 


Emmanuel 
Pahud, flute 
Eric LeSage, 
piano 

October 30 


Middlebury College Orchestra 

Evan Bennett, Conductor 
October 29 & December 3 


Middlebury College Chamber 
Soloists 

20th-Century Americans in Paris 
November 19 


The Rover or The 
Banish’d Cavalier 

By Aphra Behn 
Directed by Cheryl 
Faraone 
December 9-11 


Please visit the Center for the Arts online 
for updated information on these events 
and more: www.middlebury.edu/~cfa 


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Sex Implicit in Weddings, 
Births 

In 1992,1 married a member of the oppo¬ 
site sex in a state-sanctioned ceremony, and 
my marriage was recorded in the pages of 
Middlebury Magazine. I admit that while I 
did not marry in order to have sex, I have 
had an ongoing sexual relationship with my 
husband. I guess that I am blessed that the 
terms “marriage” and “husband” are both 
available to me and deemed sufficiendy 
inoffensive to cover up this aspect of our 
relationship. The guidelines by which the 
magazine is attempting to protect its read¬ 
ers should preclude any future reporting of 
weddings and most certainly preclude 
reporting on the birth of children con¬ 
ceived in the traditional manner. 

It is painful enough to listen to politi¬ 
cians attempt to legislate against committed 
relationships (I don’t need my marriage 
“defended”)—does the alumni magazine 
have to insult its readers? All alumni should 
be treated with equal consideration. 

Jessie Saacke ’84 
Cambridge, MA 



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Discourteous or Obtuse? 

I am writing to add my voice to the cho¬ 
rus of protests in the Summer 1999 edition 
of Middlebury Magazine in response to your 
handling of Paul Cody’s letter and its use of 
the terms lover and co-parent. Perhaps even 
more troubling to me than your original 
editorial choice not to print these terms— 
offensive as that choice was—was your 
unapologetic, discourteous, and utterly 
unjustifiable response to his letter of com¬ 
plaint; this was a classic case of adding insult 
to injury. The specious distinction you 
made in that response between editing 
words and editing lifestyles was clearly 
either disingenuous or obtuse. In neither 
case was it worthy of the editor of the 
alumni magazine of a college that prides 
itself on excellence in the liberal arts. 
Christopher Rivers 
M.A. French ’84 
Granby, MA 

Editor’s Note: 

We have heard from many of you on this 
issue, both through letters to the editor and 
through phone calls and visits. There has 
been almost unanimous agreement that 


6 Middlebury Magazine 



























people should be free to call their signifi¬ 
cant others “lovers” if they so choose. 
Discussions with class secretaries, who are 
on the front line of class notes submissions, 
produces the same opinion. Language 
evolves, and so do we. Henceforth “lovers” 
are welcome in this magazine. Christening 
the new class notes editorial policy is 
Michael Culp, who writes, “Given the 
recent controversy over committed same- 
sex relationships, I would be remiss (not to 
mention complicit) if I did not send in the 
following submission for the alumni class 
notes. 

T. Michael Culp ’82 is a naturopathic 
physician living in Asheville, NC, with his 
lover, Jason Watson. Michael works for 
Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory and 
travels around the country lecturing about 
functional medicine to other physicians. He 
also has a small family medical practice and 
writes a regular column for Healthy Living 
magazine. His e-mail address is Michael 
Culp@gsdl.com. 

Disgruntled By Makeover 

There is much that is wonderful and good 
about Middlebury College, and I cherished 
my time there under the tutelage of such 
great professors as John Elder, Steve 
Trombulak (who was poorly profiled in the 
last issue), Bill Hart, and Janine Clookey,but 
there is also something pathological and 
frightening about this place that I love. It 
measures success by family trees that 
include 22 graduates. That a college could 
pride itself on blemishing the landscape of 
a small, Vermont town (see Northern 
Exposure , Summer ’99) and proudly include 
a photograph of two students in a sport 
utility vehicle zooming toward the scar that 
is the new science facility is a sad commen¬ 
tary on the values of this changing institu¬ 
tion. The caption to that photograph said, 
with annoying arrogance, “All roads lead to 
Middlebury.” It should have said you can 
now see Bicentennial Hall from nearly all 
roads that lead to Middlebury. How smug 
that Sarah Varney’s [sic, Beth Whitney ’95] 
quaint portrayal of the Addison County 
Field Days should say, “...[D]on’t skip the 
Ferris wheel; it has a view to beat any other ; 
in the county (presuming that we’ll be 
asked to keep off the roof of the new sci¬ 
ence center, that is).” 

(Continued on page 90) 1 



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UPHILL 

Ei i ihi 1 


BY THE NUMBERS 


AMERICA'S 
BEST COLLEGES 

US. News & World Report 
named Midd 5th among 
national liberal arts colleges, 
up two spots from last year, and 
the highest the College has 
ever ranked. 

BEST COLLEGES 
FOR WOMEN 
ATHLETES 

Sports Illustrated for Women 
ranked Midd 3rd among 
Division III schools. 

BEST COLLEGE 
MAGAZINE 

Middlebury Magazine was 
named 2nd in a national com¬ 
petition of college and univer¬ 
sity magazines by the Council 
for the Advancement and 
Support of Education. 

THE IVY AWARD 
19 9 9 

The Ivy Award for Outstanding 
Dining Services 
R&I Magazine 

Middlebury is the only liberal 
arts college or university in the 
country to receive this award. 

BEST VALUES 

U.S. News & World Report 
calculates cost and financial 
aid against the magazines own 
quality rankings of colleges and 
universities. 


Is Hate a 
Crime? 

ead Chapel was full 
up to the balcony 
with students, faculty, 
and staff eager to hear the 
wunderkind of American jour¬ 
nalism talk about hate. Andrew 
Sullivan, known equally for his 
brilliance and for his contro¬ 
versial opinions, spoke as part 
of a two-day visit under the 
Twilight Scholars Program. 

His academic bonafides were 
impressive (honors from 
Oxford, Ph.D from Harvard), 
as was his experience as a 
writer, editor, and public policy 
pundit (youngest-ever editor 
of the New Republic , currently 
contributing editor to the New 
York Times Magazine, and 
author of several books). 

While at Harvard, Sullivan 
met and became friends with 
associate professor of political 
science Allison Stanger. She 
confided, as she introduced 
him to the crowd at Mead, 
that shed actually had a crush 
on him when she first met 
him, before she realized he 
was “batting for the other 
team.”The Seinfeld reference 
evoked chuckles. 

Which brought to the fore 
Sullivan s particular slant on 
the subject at hand. Sullivan 
is gay Famously gay. He has 
talked about his homosexuali¬ 
ty and written about it exten¬ 
sively. Middlebury was anxious 
to hear his views, since the 
College has been grappling 


with issues of diversity as they 
manifest themselves in both 
the curriculum and in the 
civility of life on the campus. 
Recently the bulletin boards 
for Middlebury s Open Queer 
Alliance (moqa), Feminist 
Action at Middlebury 
(FAM), and the African 
American Alliance (AAA) 
had been vandalized, and 
in response the chaplain’s 
office sponsored a “Stop the 
Hate Vigil,” so the topic 
of bigotry and hate was of 
more than academic interest. 

Sullivan knows hate like 
Eskimos know snow. He has 
studied it in all its forms and 
gradations—hate emanating 
from knowledge and hate 
emanating from ignorance; 
obsessive hate, hysterical 
hate, and narcissistic hate; 
group hatred and individual 
hatred; political hatred and 
personal hatred. 

But when Sullivan asked 
rhetorically: “What can we do 
about hate?” His answer, “Not 
much,” disappointed some. “It 
is an integral part of human 
nature,” he continued. “You 
can’t ultimately change the 
visceral response people have 
to you.” 

Not that Sullivan doesn’t 
believe in strict equality under 
the law. He does. He’s an 
activist in lobbying for equali¬ 
ty for gays in the military and 
for gay marriage. But he was 
careful to draw the distinction 
between institutionalized 
hatred as witnessed in Serbia, 
Nazi Germany, or Rwanda, 


and personal hatred. 

Some examples of“hate 
crimes,” he said, weren’t that at 
all, but simply bursts of anger 
or one-time stupidities on the 
part of basically decent people. 

Some in the audience at 

x 





Andrew Sullivan: "The right of the bigot is 
the right of the drag queen." 

Mead listened skeptically as 
Sullivan contended that if 
people want to be racist or 
sexist or homophobic in their 
personal lives, that is their 
perogative. 

“The right of the bigot is 
the right of the drag queen,” 
he said, illustrating with some 
levity his belief that more leg¬ 
islation is not the answer. 

“Hatred can’t be stopped. 
It’s in all of us. It can only be 
overcome. We can try and per¬ 
suade others by faith and love, 
but we will at some point fail. 
We have to, at some point, let 
it go.” 


8 Middlebury Magazine 


Photographs by Alan Jakubek 










Stone by 
Stone 

ieter Broucke, an 
assistant professor ot his¬ 
tory of art and architec¬ 
ture, stands before a crowd of 
nearly 40 students and faculty 
in the Wonnacott Commons 
living room to talk about a 
project dear to his heart. The 
Belgian-born Broucke began 
a love affair with Greece (and 
with archaeology) nearly 20 
years ago as an architecture 
student, and he was thrilled to 
be able to bring Middlebury 
students to Greece last summer, 
and to bring Greece to Mid¬ 
dlebury tonight. 

Slides of Greece flash by, 
a map of a mountain, an exca¬ 
vation site at Messene, huge 
blocks of a ruined temple, and 
the happy faces of an archaeol¬ 
ogy team (including four Mid¬ 
dlebury students) that worked 
with Broucke for four weeks 
last summer on the Messene 
Reconstruction Project. 

Broucke and Frederick 
Cooper (University of Min¬ 
nesota), codirectors of this 
archaeological site at Messene, 
are in the process of physically 
reconstructing a building 
known as a heroon , or hero 
shrine. Though they are now 
joining stone to stone, before 
they got to this point, the 
building had to be put togeth¬ 
er on paper. For this, Brouckes 
experience in architectural 
design came in handy—he 
holds a professional degree in 




Top: Codirectors of the 
site, Professor Pieter 
Broucke (right) and 
Frederick Cooper. 

Left: The crew, with 
the reconstructed facade 
on the ground awaiting 
re-erection. 

Bottom: The Arcadian 
Gate at Messene. 


architecture from Ghent, 
Belgium, as well as an M.A. in 
archaeology from the Universi¬ 
ty of Minnesota and an M.A. 
and a Ph.D. in art history from 
Yale University. 

Since most of the blocks 
have strayed far from their 
original locations, a team of 
workers is crucial to the 
reassembly. This team included 
Mark Bassett ’99, Quinn Ray¬ 
mond ’00, Katherine Curtis 
’00, and Brian Quiros ’00, who 
joined Broucke last summer as 
part of MiRA (Middlebury 
Research in Archaeology).The 
team sorted and 
catalogued each 
block, then stored 
them in rows called 
block fields around 
the temple site. 

Slides during the 
Wonnacott presen¬ 
tation demonstrated 
their hard labor 
locating blocks 
from the block field 
and moving them, 
suspended by means of an 
elaborate strapping system from 
the front of a bulldozer, to the 
reconstruction site. 

“It was a physically 
demanding, mentally challeng¬ 
ing, emotionally straining 
experience,” Mark Bassett says. 
“And absolutely amazing. I 


loved it.” 

Students received one aca¬ 
demic credit for this five-week 
experience. Broucke admits the 
20-hour days constitute “a very 
hard-earned credit.” though an 
extremely valuable experience 


because the project gives stu¬ 
dents the opportunity “to get 
involved with Greek architec¬ 
ture in a way that cannot be 
done in the classroom,” said 
Broucke. “And they get to 
know students from other 
institutions; this summer they 
joined students from Notre 
Dame, the University of Min¬ 
nesota, and Columbia Univer¬ 
sity. 

The Messene Project will 
continue in upcoming sum¬ 
mers, and Broucke hopes to 
take another group of interest¬ 
ed Middlebury students with 


him to continue this 
six-year labor of 
love. 

“Twenty years 
ago I went to 
Greece and it 
changed my life. I’m 
so happy to see that 
experience happen 


again, to these stu¬ 
dents.” 

For more information, 
contact Professor Broucke at 
broucke@middlebury.edu 


Fail 


9 













UPHILL 


U nhil 


m 



ONE DAY IN OCTOBER 

AST SPRING students in the Mountain Club had a crazy 
idea. They wanted to celebrate the upcoming bicentennial 
in a different way, a Mountain Club way Why not, 
they proposed to the Bicentennial Steering Commitee, get 
Middlebury students, alumni, faculty, and staff to climb, on 
one day, each of the 50 peaks higher than 4,000 feet in the 
Adirondacks and Green Mountains. If this thing took off, they 
thought as many as 200 climbers might take to the mountains. 

Several months and several hundred phone calls and e-mails 
later, over 400 climbers in Vermont and New York and 100 
Middlebury people in 24 countries on 6 continents laced up 
their hiking boots and climbed a peak for Middlebury. Though 
the day was chilly in the Northeast and some peaks were 
fog-bound, the hikes were a resounding success. 

Kate Webber Punderson ’94, adviser to this extravaganza, 
marveled at the response. “We got calls from people around the 
world,” she says. “It far exceeded our expectations.” Alums and 
students hiked in Ecuador and Hong Kong, Israel and Morocco. 
Thomas Murray ’91 hiked up Mt. Omul in Romania, and 
Miranda Hillyard ’01, who is studying abroad, climbed Castle 
Hill in Australia. 

Punderson credits the students in the Mountain Club, par¬ 
ticularly Emily Howe ’01 and Jeff Phillippe ’01, who had the 
idea and pushed it forward. Mountain Club students led each 
hike in Vermont and New York, carrying with them a disposable 
camera to record Midds on 50 summits on one day in October. 

Photo above: W. Storrrs Lee ’28 took this photograph of his classmates 
at the ridge of Mount Mansfield. Expressing enthusiasm about this 
event, Lee wrote, “Approaching a 94th birthday, I would prove to be 
an impediment to even a group ascension of Chipman Hill, but as 
photographic contributor to the extravaganza, and one of the founders 
of Middlebury’s Mountain Club, perhaps I should be en titled to receipt 
of a souvenir medium sized T-shirt?” 


NEW MIDD KIDS ON THE BLOCK 


NUMBER APPLIED 

4,865 (10% increase) 

PERCENT ACCEPTED 

26% (31% last year) 

NUMBER ADMITTED 

1,244 (10% decrease) 

AVERAGE COMBINED 
SAT 

1,390 (1,380 last year) 

STUDENTS OF COLOR 

93 (82 last year) 

FOREIGN NATIONALS 

59 (40 last year) 

STATES REPRESENTED 

44 (43 last year) 

COUNTRIES 

REPRESENTED 

32 (28 last year) 


TOP 5 OVERLAP 
SCHOOLS 

1. Dartmouth (Dartmouth) 

2. Brown (Williams) 

3. Amherst (Amherst) 

4. Williams (Georgetown) 

5. Georgetown (Wesleyan) 

SPECIAL TALENTS 

■ Actor Toby Lawless ’03 
appeared in Ten Things I Hate 
About You , three Disney films, 
Northern Exposure and Bill Nye 
the Science Guy. 

■ Katherine Hoeschler ’03 
is a two-time World Champ 
birler (a birler stands on and 
“rolls” a cedar log floadng in 
the water while attempting to 
dislodge her competitor). 

■ Gourmet chefs Jamie Davis 
’03 and John Prescott ’03 have 
both attended culinary insti¬ 
tutes and their original recipes 
appear in cookbooks. 


RECOLLECTIONS 


1901: NEW SCIENCE CENTER OPENS 



o Citizens and Friends of the college. The new 
Science Hall of Middlebury College, erected and 
furnished at a cost of $82,500 by Ezra J. Warner of 
Chicago, is nearly completed. Before moving the apparatus 
into the building there is to be a formal opening today. From 
8 to 10 this evening all the rooms in the building will be 
lighted and thrown open to the public. All the citizens of the 
village and friends of the college are cordially invited to visit 
the building at that time, when the uses of the various rooms 
and furniture will be explained by the heads of the several 
departments for whose use the building is provided. 

—President Ezra Brainerd, from an article in the Middlebury 
Register, November 15, 1901 

-From The College on the Hill by David Bain 


10 Middlebury Magazine 


























For Tim 
the Bell Tolls 

ucture this: Tim 
'Bartlett ’98 at 12 years 
of age, walking with 
his father down a street in 
Winchester, England. Suddenly 
he is overwhelmed by an 
incredible sound from above. 

“Change ringing,” his 
father explains.“Its an old art — 
a special kind of bell-ringing, a 
sort of sport.” Pan up to bell- 
tower, where a complex sound 
emerges. Fade out. 

Fade in, 10 years later.Tim 


is now a Watson fellow, toting a 
camera through the streets and 
country roads of Britain, on a 
quest to understand and docu¬ 
ment change ringing. A young 
London bell-ringer smiles into 
Tim’s camera,“I wake up, I 
ring, take a break, ring some 
more, and then go to the pub. 
If I’m not ringing. I’m drink¬ 
ing.” Is this an art? A sport? 

A lifestyle? 

Bartlett has just returned 
from a year in England, having 
recorded 70 videotapes which 
he is now editing, and he recent¬ 
ly spoke to the Middlebury 
community about his experi¬ 


ence and the documentary he 
hopes to make about change 
ringing. 

The first question everyone 
has for Tim is, What’s change 
ringing? The American stereo¬ 
type of ringing chapel bells 
involves bells ringing the hour, 
or keyboards playing melodies. 
This American-style bell-ring¬ 
ing is most emphatically not 
change ringing. 

To perform change ring¬ 
ing, a great deal of strength, 
agility, and endurance is 
required of the ringers, who 
stand in a circle, pulling long 
ropes that clang the huge bells 


high above in the tower. The 
bells, which weigh up to two 
tons apiece, are cast in sets of 
four and up, with the number 
of possible ringing permuta¬ 
tions being directly propor¬ 
tionate to the number of bells 
in the set. Ringers may ring 
a “full peal,” which is three 
uninterrupted hours of ringing 
a nonrepeating musical 
sequence, or a half- or quarter- 
peal. The musical sequence 
is not based on melody, but 
rather on mathematical 
patterns. 


P HOTOliRAPH BY A L A N J AKUBEK 


Fall 11 









Getting Reel 

THE MEDIUM'S 
THE MESSAGE 


BY KIM ASCH 


W HAT A PERFECT DAY 
FOR A MOVIE. It has 
been raining all 

afternoon—a long, cold, steady 
bone-soaking rain, and students 
in hooded jackets cross campus 
silently, heads bent against the 
weather. They arrive in 
Sunderland 110, which has an 
oversized video monitor built 
into the front wall, and wait 
for the show to begin. But 
wait, the aroma of popcorn is 
conspicuously absent. And 
there’s a professor down in 
front, standing before a podi¬ 
um. Better check your ticket, 
because if you think this class 
is pure entertainment, you’re in 
the wrong place. Though soon 
the lights will go down and a 
film will roll, there’s also plenty 
of reading, critical analysis, and 
discussion of complex ideas in 
Masterworks of American 
Cinema, taught by Ted Perry, 
Fletcher Professor of the Arts 
and professor in the department 
of theatre, dance, and film/video. 

“We approach films like 
literature,” Perry explains. “I 
choose American films that I 
feel are works of art, that have 
substance and are important.” 

Few of the films to be 
studied over the course of the 


Professor Ted Perry: "Students are a lot more visually literate than they were 
20 years ago." 


semester were made after 
1970. Some are silent, many 
aren’t in color, and only a 
couple have titles students 
recognize. For today’s under¬ 
graduates, most of whom can’t 
remember a time before 
VCRs, video games, MTV, and 
remote control, the early clas¬ 
sics are a shock to the senses. 

“I think people were sur¬ 
prised when Charlie Chaplin 
came on in black and white 
with no sound. Everybody was 
like, ugghh ,” says Craig Hine 
’02, an English major. 

“I think they were expect¬ 
ing, like, Top Gun” adds Mike 
Mahony ’02, a computer 
science major. 

“Students are a lot more 
visually literate than they 
were 20 years ago,” says Perry. 
“They’re able to process 
images more quickly and take 
in more informadon in a 
shorter period of time.” 

He teaches them to sus¬ 
pend their expectations, to 
slow down and appreciate 
older films that “contain less 
visual information frame by 
frame,” but that have “better 
stories, better characters, and 
better dialogue because they’re 
written by people who are 
writers, rather than by people 
who work for MTV” 

“Mr. Perry aided in my 


understanding of movies,” says 
senior Suhaas Ahuja, who took 
the class in the fall of’98. “The 
way he did that was to nullify 
my concept of what a movie 
is. What is a movie besides an 
idea? If I want to fully under¬ 
stand an idea outside myself, 


I have to suspend myself first. 
Mr. Perry showed me a door 
through which I could get 
outside myself.” 

Today’s lecture is about 
Buster Keaton as existentialist, 
materialist, foolish optimist, 
and surrealist: “a figure of 



12 Middlebury Magazine 


Photograph by Alan Jakubek 
























modernity.” It seems appropri¬ 
ate that the professor uses the 
latest in classroom technology 
to enhance his teaching. The 
big monitor in the wall shows 
an enlarged version of Perry’s 
laptop computer screen. He 
goes to the Web site he created 
for the course and clicks on 
the lesson plan for today. As he 
alludes to various points in 
Sherlock, Jr., Perry clicks on the 
film clips he posted on the site, 
while students watch the action 
unfold up on the monitor. 

There’s Keaton, riding a 


falling ladder off the roof of a 
building and landing gracefully, 
miraculously, in the seat of a 
moving convertible. There he 
is again, with his girl in a sink¬ 
ing car, raising the convertible 
top like a sail and spending the 
last few, dry minutes cuddling 
and admiring the view. 

Keaton, Perry says, is the 
epitome of existentialism, or 
the belief that “we should gen¬ 
erate our own value, not one 
that is handed to us.” 

“I sense that more than 
any other comedian he under¬ 
stands the darkness of life, the 
meaninglessness of life, but he 
keeps on going with this 
incredible sense that he’s not 
going to be put down,” Perry 
says. “The aspect of the human 
condition that Keaton seems 
over and over again to empha¬ 
size is facing difficulty and 
coining up with ways to con¬ 
front it.” 

Students can review the 


lecture simply by calling up the 
course Web site, where the syl¬ 
labus and clips from upcoming 
movies are also posted. Mahony 
and Hine spent a recent night 
analyzing Keaton clips and try¬ 
ing to figure out how he pulled 
off his stunts. 

“I like the Keaton movies,” 
Mahony says. “They’re inspir¬ 
ing because they’re able to do 
so much with so little.” 

Attendance is mandatory at 
Tuesday night screenings in 
Twilight Auditorium. Watching 
a movie on a video monitor is 


not an acceptable substitute for 
watching it on a big screen. 

“I want them to see the 
films as they were originally 
intended to be seen,” Perry 
says, adding that he wouldn’t 
expect an art history professor 
to allow students to skip the 
museum and look at reproduc¬ 
tions of the paintings in a 
book. “I’ve given my life to 
this, so I don’t want them to 
be blase about it.” 

Before coming to 
Middlebury College in 1978, 
Perry was the director of the 
film department at the 
Museum of Modern Art in 
New York City and chair of 
cinema studies at New York 
University. He taught at 
SUNY Purchase, Harvard 
University, the University of 
Texas at Austin, and at the 
University of Iowa (where he 
received his Ph.D.). For 10 
years he was a trustee of the 
American Film Institute. 


Later in the semester, Perry 
will reintroduce his class to a 
childhood favorite, The Wizard 
of Oz, examining myths and 
archetypal characters, and 
studying the film’s various 
themes—great lessons that 
must be learned, the idea of 
home, the recognition of our 
deepest needs to be accepted 
and loved. They’ll also learn 
about the historical context 
that informs the story, which 
some say is an allegory for the 
plight of the American farmer. 

“In order to frilly under¬ 


stand the narrative, students 
need to know that L. Frank 
Baum, the man who wrote the 
book the movie is based on, 
was a populist with a distrust of 
Washington politicians and East 
Coast corporations,” Perry says. 

Students also read a 70- 
page analysis of the Wizard of 
Oz by Salman Rushdie, the 
internationally renowned 
author who was in exile for 
over a decade. Ahuja recalls 
that Rushdie “writes about 
how Dorothy comes back 
from this world of color to a 
place, Kansas, that’s black and 
white and all she can say is, 
‘There’s no place like home.’ 
Rushdie wonders why home 
would be more important than 
the joy of life and color,” 
drawing parallels with the 
immigrant experience (and 
perhaps with Rushdie’s experi¬ 
ence as an exile), and suggest¬ 
ing that perhaps home is a state 
of mind. 


The class also studies film 
noir classics from the 1940s, 
such as Billy Wilder’s Double 
Indemnity and Howard Hawks’s 
The Big Sleep, thrillers from the 
1950s, like Alfred Hitchcock’s 
Rear Window and Orson Welles’s 
Touch of Evil, and The Searchers, 
a 1956 Western directed by 
John Ford and starring John 
Wayne. 

More recent titles include 
Zabriskie Point, 1970, a drama 
directed by Michelangelo 
Antonioni; Raging Bull, 1980, 
Martin Scorcese’s scorching 
portrait of a boxer; and 77te 
Godfather Part II, 1974, Francis 
Ford Coppola’s sequel to the 
Mafia family saga, which is 
studied as a reflection of “post- 
Vietnam cynicism” and “the 
rise of capitalism in American 
society.” 

As director of the film- 
video studies department, 

Perry has also had a lot of suc¬ 
cess arranging internships for 
the majors in his department, 
and over the years a number 
of alumni have distinguished 
themselves in Hollywood. 

“It’s our guerrilla move¬ 
ment,” Perry says of the 
Hollywood-Midd contin¬ 
gent. “If we want to change 
the industry” he explains, “we 
can’t just make better viewers, 
we have to get people in key 
positions,” which includes 
cinematographer Gretchen 
Widmer ’88; Mimi Polk Gitlin 
’81, who produced White 
Squall; and Michael Tolkin ’74, 
who wrote The Player, wrote 
and directed The Rapture, and 
cowrote Deep Impact. 

And as for making better 
viewers, Hine says the course 
has given him a new apprecia¬ 
tion: “I won’t just walk by the 
oldies section at Blockbuster 
anymore,” he says. 

Kim Asch is a writer living in 
Bi / rlington, Vertnont. 


Some say The Wizard of Oz 
is an allegory about the plight 
of the American farmer. 


Fall 13 



















The LongView 

VERMONT'S LAND 
AND THE PEOPLE 

WHO CALL IT HOME 


BY DON MITCHELL 


T he Story of Vermont 
(Middlebury College 
Press/University Press of 
New England), by Christopher 
McGrory Klyza and Stephen 
C. Trombulak, seems destined 
to become required reading for 
serious students of the Green 
Mountain State—people 
whose curiosity about the state 
extends beyond the familiar 
surfaces Vermont presents to 
the world. No cute photo¬ 
graphs of boiling maple syrup 
here, no tales of Ben and Jerry. 
The book demands intelligent 
and thoughtful readers, curious 
like its authors are as to how 
the present detente between 
the states human culture and 
its natural environment came 
to exist. The “story” is, ulti¬ 
mately, one of considerable re¬ 
cent success with at least the 
chance for a truly happy end¬ 
ing. But there’s lots of conflict 
too; the white Europeans who 
came to tame the wild country 
north of Massachusetts and 
south of Quebec were untrou¬ 
bled exploiters of the landscape 
on behalf of narrowly con¬ 
ceived and remarkably short¬ 
sighted ends. The evolution of 
an environmental consciousness 
in modern-day Vermont is 
therefore worthy of investiga¬ 
tion, along with the conse¬ 
quences of that perspective 
for the various “ecological 



The history of human culture in Vermont stretches back for several thousand 
years of the landscape's habitation by Paleoindian, Archaic, and Woodland 
peoples, followed by Abenaki and then, in the very recent past, white Europeans. 


communities” of which the 
state is composed. 

Various other “Vermont 
books” in recent years have at¬ 
tempted to paint a verbal por¬ 
trait of the state, considering 
the forces that have shaped the 
landscape’s physical characteris- 
rics and its human culture’s 
idiosyncratic traits. Both these 


qualities—with which mem¬ 
bers of the Middlebury family 
are well familiar—have made 
the state reliably satisfying to 
native residents, newly settled 
“furriners,” and short-duration 


transients alike. But Tlw Story of 
Vermont is unique among its 
peer volumes in the following 
three important ways, each of 
which has to do with offering 
readers a richer set of contexts 


14 Middlebury Magazine 


Photograph by Luke Powell 






















from which the state’s present 
situation can be examined. 

First, Klyza and Trombu- 
lak’s book relentlessly enforces 
the perspective of geologic 
time, in which the events of 
the past few centuries of Euro¬ 
pean settlement are dwarfed by 
detailed presentation of a vastly 
more expansive natural history. 



Christopher McGrory Klyza, associate 
professor of political science and 
environmental studies, and Stephen 
Trombulak, professor of biology and 
environmental studies, are expanding 
our view of Vermont. 

For those accustomed to 
thinking of Ethan Allens raid 
on FortTiconderoga as an im¬ 
portant event in Vermont’s 
early history (over 200 years 
ago!), the contemplation of 
thousands of millions of years 
of natural history is apt to be 
dizzying. And sobering as well, 
making our obsession with 
events of the recent past and 
our present era seem self-ab¬ 
sorbed and puny. 

Second, The Story of Vermont 
consistently asks the reader 
to understand “Vermont”—a 
very recent and far-from- 
inevitable geographical and 
political construct—as only a 
small part of the much wider 
Greater Laurentian region, to 
which the state’s landforms and 
flora and fauna appropriately 
belong.This “bioregional” per¬ 
spective is ably reinforced by a 
striking series of maps created 
with GIS (Geographic Infor¬ 
mation System) technology 
that renders the contours of 
mountains, lakes, and rivers 
in startling relief. Like a micro¬ 
scope shifting between differ¬ 
ent lenses of varying powers, a 
composite view emerges of 





History is more than 
dates and events. 




Chocolate 
Sleigh Ride 


David Bain’s fresh account of Middlebury’s history, “The College 
on the Hill,” emphasizes the personal point of view. The result is 
a rich understanding of the story of Middlebury and the individ¬ 
uals who shaped it over 200 years. 

9" X 12"; 464 pp; over 600 photos 


To place an order, call the College Store 
at 802-443-3036 or mail a check to 
College Store, Middlebury College, 
Middlebury, VT 05753. The price is 
$29.95 through Dec. 31, 1999, and 
$35.00 thereafter. Add $5.00 for 
shipping and handling charges. 


Published by Middlebury College on the 
occasion of its Bicentennial. 


This keepsake sleigh over¬ 
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Visit our Factory Store: 750 Pine Street 
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Fall 15 




























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the ways in which the state 
both is and is not unique 
within the wider region that 
contains it. 

Insofar as Vermont is 
unique, much of the cause 
can be laid to the history of 
human culture here—human 
culture stretching back for 
several thousand years of the 
landscape’s habitation by 
Paleoindian, Archaic, and 
Woodland peoples, followed 
by Abenaki and then, in the 
very recent past, white Euro¬ 
peans. The Story of Vermont is 
admirably focused on this third 
specific context from which 
readers are challenged to 


understand and view the state: 
the dynamic interaction 
between human beings in 
Vermont—their evolving goals 
and aspirations, their shifting 
patterns of settlement and 
means of eking out a living— 
and the natural resources that 
have surrounded them and 
changed with them throughout 
this long odyssey The 
impact of human cultural 
history upon natural history 
has steadily snowballed, to the 
point where human choices 
today are a primary determi¬ 
nant of the quality of Vermont’s 
natural environment for many 
years to come. The authors 


ALSO NOTED 


Before Life 
Hurries On 

SABRA FIELD '57 AND JENEPHER LINGELBACH 



SIMPLE COLLECTION of a dozen short, meditative 
poems written by Jenepher Lingelbach and illustrated 
with original woodcuts by Sabra Harwood Field ’57, 
Before Life Hurries On is a treasure for both its beauty and the 
act of reflection it enjoins the reader to undergo. Lingelbach 
first wrote poems on such subjects as Morning Pond, 
November Fog, Otters, or Witerfall—natural scenes that were 
part of her experience living in Vermont. Field then created 
scenes in response to the poems. The book ends with a section 
entitled “Origins of the Book,” in which the two women 
explain the event or memory that led to their creations. Before 
Life Hurries On is published by University Press of New 
England. 




16 Middlebury Magazini 

















































set forth a range of possible 
scenarios and urge that we 
choose wisely. 

The Story of Vermont also 
provides a compelling glimpse 
at why environmental studies 
has become, in recent years, an 
especially popular major at 
Middlebury. Coauthored by 
two professors long associated 
with the environmental science 
program—Klyza is a political 
scientist, and Trombulak a 
biologist—their synergistic 
approach to this subject nicely 
models the multidisciplinary 
style for which environmental 
studies at Middlebury has 
become well known. Remark¬ 


able, too, is the fact that this 
book-length narrative manages 
to range over such abstruse 
topics as global plate tectonics, 
biodiversity, industrial history, 
and the politics of conserva¬ 
tion, yet the book reads like 
the product of a single author. 
First in a series of Middlebury 
Bicentennial books that will 
address environmental topics 
with a bioregional approach, 
The Story of Vermont is a solid 
achievement that foretells good 
things to come. 

Don Mitchell is a lecturer in the 
English department. 


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revelations, Girls on the Verge probes the depths of timely ques¬ 
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Fall 17 

































BY KELLY KERNER 

I N A YEAR in which the 
admissions office set records 
for number of applications, 
nearly 4,900, and the quality of 
applicants, average GPAs and 
SATs somewhere near the 
moon, the College continues 
to be a collegiate sports rarity 
Not only was 1998-1999 a 
superb academic year, but it 
goes in the books as the most 
successful year in the history of 
Middlebury College athletics. 
Yes, quality academics can exist 
in harmony with quality ath¬ 
letics. 

For those of you who 
missed it, here’s a brief review: 
1998 started out with a bang 
as field hockey won their first 
NCAA championship with a 
record of 17-1. Mens soccer 
finished the regular season 13- 
1 and made their fifth straight 
NCAA appearance. Sustaining 
the momentum, women’s cross 
country finished the season 
number one in New England 
and number two nationally on 
their way to the NESCAC 
championship. Not to be out¬ 
done, womens volleyball, in 
only its fifth year of intercolle¬ 
giate competition, made its 
first NCAA appearance with 
25 wins. Take a breath, we Ye 
just getting started. 

Winter rolled in and the 
Panthers rolled on.Womens 



Good Sports 

SCHOLAR-ATHLETES 

DOMINATE 


hockey finished their season 
with a school record 22 wins, 
a fourth consecutive ECAC 
championship (there was no 
national championship tourna¬ 
ment until this coming year) 
and a remarkable record of 
72-0 in league play since its 
inception. In a year in which 
Bill Beaney thought he was 
rebuilding the team, mens 
hockey delivered its fifth con¬ 
secutive NCAA championship. 
Skiing finished eighth at the 
NCAA championships. 

Finally, mens swimming fin¬ 
ished a school best fifth overall 
at the NCAA championships. 

Then the weather got hot¬ 
ter and so did Middlebury s 
sports teams. Track and field 
athlete, Kristy Laramee ’01 was 
the Colleges first NCAA 
champion in high jump. 
Baseball made its first ever 
post-season appearance in the 
ECAC championships with a 
school record 20 wins. Men’s 
lacrosse went further than any 
collegiate team in New 
England history by finishing 
second in the NCAA champi¬ 
onships. As the exclamation 
point on the entire Panther 
sports year. Missy Foote’s 
women’s lacrosse team topped 
it all off by winning their sec¬ 
ond NCAA championship in 
three years with a record of 
17-0, thus making it Missy’s 
second NCAA championship 
of the year (field hockey). 


Add this all together and it 
equals a second-place finish in 
the Sears Director’s Cup, the 
award (based solely on NCAA 
competition) given annually by 
the National Association of 


Collegiate Directors of 
Athletics to the best overall 
collegiate athletics program in 
the country. 

Now go grab a Gatorade. 


John Giannacopoulos '00, a two-sport All-American, has thrilled hockey 
and soccer fans alike in his four years at Middlebury. 


18 Middlebury Magazini 


Photograph by Alan Jakubek 




















DOUBLE WHAMMY 


J OHN Giannacopoulos, 
a two-sport All- 
American, is one of 
those athletes who 
leaves people gaping, 
i “What the .... Did 
1 you see that?” 

Giannacopoulos 
(Gino for short) is, 
according to his soc¬ 
cer coach Dave 
Saward, “simply the 
best player I have 
ever coached at taking 
on a defender and beating 
him, and at times humiliating 
him. He has a center of gravity 
which enables him to turn and 
take a ball like no other player 
at this level.” 

Gino has amazed fans since 
he first set foot on the field, or 
set blade on the ice. His fresh¬ 
man year, Gino scored the 
winning goal during 
Middlebury s third NCAA 
championship hockey final, an 
historic moment for 
Middlebury hockey and an 
incredible introduction to col¬ 
lege for this young man from 
Needham, Massachusetts. 

“That was one of those 
moments that I will always 
remember,” he says. “There is 
so much good about being an 
athlete at Middlebury. I get to 
play for the two best coaches I 
have ever had; I am going to 
school in ‘dreamland,’ and then 
that goal happens. How can it 
get any better?” 

Well, it might not be get¬ 
ting any better, but it certainly 
must have felt pretty good 
when last year he scored the 
winning goal during a soccer 
game against Williams. Coach 
Saward recalls, “Gino s brother 
was playing as a freshman for 
the Ephs, his whole family was 
on the sidelines, and we were 
fighting a very tough battle. 
The game went into overtime. 


With three minutes left in the 
extra period, Gino beat a 
defender, went one-on-one 
with the keeper, and popped 
in the game winner. That’s the 
kind of effort and leadership 
that you want demonstrated to 
your younger players.” 

For an athlete interested in 
pursuing not only a quality 
education, but two major 
sports, Middlebury turned out 
to be just the place for Gino. 
“Middlebury was perfect for 
me. It was a place where the 
soccer coach and the hockey 
coach not only got along, but 
they worked together to get 
players. When I see those 
coaches at practice or in the 
halls, I remember that they are 
two people who really 
believed in me and gave me a 
chance. It’s an incredible 
incentive to work extra hard.” 

Gino has a simple equation 
to pass on this legacy of suc¬ 
cess to new players. “You can’t 
tell the younger kids what to 
think or how to play; they’ll 
respond to what you do, not 
what you say. They’ve got to 
see you set the example. That’s 
what we’re about in the hock¬ 
ey program. We’re not just a 
team, we are a tradition. Every 
time we step on the ice, we 
know we are going to win, 
and passing on that attitude is 
the key to our success.That’s 
what Coach Beaney has done. 
He’s taught us how to be flexi¬ 
ble, how to adjust, how to win. 
He’s passed that on to us, and 
it’s our job to pass it on to the 
underclassmen. When you 
think about it, that’s what 
Middlebury teaches us: how to 
think, how to analyze our 
options, so we can go any¬ 
where and do anything.” 


FOOTBALL 

The team is off to a great start at 2-1, including a comeback 
victory over Amherst 14-13. Senior quarterback John Wenner 
is ranked 4th among NESCAC quarterbacks. 

MEN'S SOCCER 

The Panthers are looking for their sixth straight NCAA 
Tournament appearance this season. The team is off to a great 
start at 6-0-2. Senior John Giannacopoulos and first-year play¬ 
er Kyle Dezotell have been leading the team in scoring. 

WOMEN'S SOCCER 

The women’s soccer team is looking to return to the post-sea¬ 
son once again after an ECAC Tournament appearance in ’98 
and a trip to the NCAA semifinals in ’97. The team has a 
record of 6-2 early in the season, and is ranked 9th in New 
England. 

FIELD HOCKEY 

The defending NCAA Champions are back on track after a 
slow start.The team, ranked 3rd in New England, has a record 
of 6-3. Leading the team in scoring are Nina Johnson’00, 
Nahal Batmanghelidj ’02, and Sarah Theall ’01. 

WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL 

After making an NCAA Tournament appearance last year in 
their fifth year as a varsity sport, the Panthers are looking good 
once again. The team, ranked 6th in New England, has a 
match record of 10-3, and is led by Leslie Edwards ’01 and 
Dawn Trowbridge ’00. 

CROSS COUNTRY 

The women’s team continues its winning ways during the 
first part of the season. Ranked 2nd nationally, the Panthers 
have become one of the dominant women’s teams in the 
nation and will look to compete at the NCAAs once again 
this season.The men’s team continues to improve and has seen 
some great development through the first several races this 
season, including a win at the Vermont State Championship. 

GOLF 

The golf team has grown by leaps and bounds over the past 
few seasons. This fall they won the NESCAC Championship 
and were led by rookie Damon Gacicia ’02, who was the 
team’s top scorer and NESCAC champion. 

TENNIS 

The men’s team won two doubles brackets at its own 
Middlebury Invitational Tournament. Will Parker ’00 and 
Rick Morgan ’00 are headed to the Rolex national doubles 
championship. The women’s team blanked Bates 9-0 in its 
season opener. The Panther women have a successful fall 
ahead of them, with eight head-to-head matches. 















S-TJJ DENT 

c e 


A Shiver Runs 

Through It 


BY RACHEL MORTON 

ir\ OES ANYONE ELSE 

Shave SAND IN THEIR 
WBr TEETH?” Courtney 
Hess asks the three other first- 
year students emerging slightly 
damp and wrinkled from their 
sleeping bags on the small 
beach along the White River 
in Randolph,Vermont. These 
young people, and several oth¬ 
ers sleeping more sensibly 
under a tarp, have spent the 
past three days camping and 
fishing and bonding as part of 
their orientation to Middle- 
bury. They’ve just spent a 
week on campus, a week 
packed with academic and 
social activities, and now it’s 
time to slow down and smell 
the roses. Or in this case, the 
fish. Under the auspices of 
MOO (Middlebury Outdoor 
Orientation), hundreds of stu¬ 
dents head out for the moun¬ 
tains and streams of Vermont. 

Nate Johnson ’98, who 
coordinates the orientation 
program for the Office of the 
Dean of Student Affairs, con¬ 
siders orientation to be the 
foundation of the Middlebury 
experience. 

“We try hard to balance 
the academic component and 
the social component,” he says. 
“What Middlebury does very 
well during orientation week 
is really hammer home the 
notion of learning both within 


20 Middlebury Magazine 



only the soft patter of rain¬ 
drops on the wide flat river. 

By 8:00 the next morning, 
a weak sun burned the fog off 
the White River as the MOO 
group emerged, one by one, 
from the soggy beach site and 
from under tarps in the camp¬ 
ground (and, clandestinely, 


and beyond the classroom.” 
And taking them way beyond 
the classroom is MOO. 

Mike Snow, a junior and 
coleader on the MOO’s fly¬ 
fishing trip, took his group of 
eight students to Otter Creek, 
Silver Lake, and the White 
River for three days of fly-fish¬ 
ing and friend-making. Snow 
is passionate about both the 
outdoors and the group expe¬ 
rience the outdoors can pro¬ 
vide. 

“Freshman year is so crazy, 
especially in the beginning,” he 
says. “It goes so fast. Going 
hiking or camping or fishing 
really slows it down.” After the 
first day of fishing, his first- 
years commented that time 
seemed to have stopped. And 
it’s not because they were mis¬ 
erable and wet and were not 
catching fish.They were happy 
as clams. 

They were even happy last 
night when they slept in the 


rain. Lying side 
by side, they 
looked at the 
stars and joked 
and sang and 
talked about 
Japanese food 
and cults, among other topics. 
They saw a shooting star and 
watched car headlights dance 
and jump through the dark 
trees across the river. Brian 
McCurdy remembers first 
hearing the rain on the water. 
When they felt it on their 
faces they realized, they were 
going to get wet, but they 
were too tired to care. 
Courtney found some plastic 
sheeting to cover herself with, 
and others covered their shoes 
or bags. “Do you want more 
butter on that?” asked George 
McElroy from deep in a 
dream, and the others laughed 
and soon fell asleep themselves 
with just their noses emerging 
from sleeping bags, hearing 


from the van).They performed 
perfunctory morning ablutions 
in an ecologically correct 
manner (“There’s a procedure 
for everything!” they com¬ 
plain, out of earshot of the 
leaders), and straggle out to the 
river individually, after nibbling 
a few crackers or a spoonful of 
peanut butter. “At MOO,” says 
Snow, “we teach them to leave 
no trace—where they walk 
and camp, how they clean up, 
brush their teeth, and go to 
the bathroom.” 

A full breakfast will come 
later in the morning; now it’s 
time to fish. They cast their 
lines and watch the river for a 
sign, a ripple.They’ve been 
taught where to look for fish. 


Photographs by Alan Jakubek 




















what kind of fly to use, and 
how to flick their line for an 
effective cast. So now they 
stand, quietly, in the water and 


wait for a bite. 

Many of these students 
knew how to fly-fish before 
they joined this trip and have 
arrived bearing impressive rods 
and wearing clothes appropri¬ 
ate to the task. Marty 
Wesolowski, who has been 
fishing for five years, wades 
into the water wearing a pair 
of Red Bell waders, making 
him waterproof from toes to 
armpit. 

“They don’t catch the 
fish,” he notes astutely, “but 
you can get deep into the 
water!” Dan Whitmore cuts an 
equally dashing figure on the 
river, with his fishing vest, 
waders, and a hat he got last 
year when he was doing com¬ 


munity service in Alaska, 
because “it reminded me of A 
River Runs Through It .” 

Mike Snow admits with¬ 


out hesitation that some are 
better fishermen than he, and 
for that reason he was particu¬ 
larly glad that Matthew 
1 )ickerson, an associate profes¬ 
sor in the computer science 
department, joined them at 
Otter Creek. 

Dickerson has been fly¬ 
fishing for 20 years, has been a 
guide professionally in 
Vermont, and writes a fly-fish¬ 
ing column for the local paper. 
When he arrived the first 
morning he spent some time 
coaching “some of the 
novices” at casting, helped 
them choose appropriate flies, 
then went into the river with 
them, showing them how and 
where to cast. The weather was 


beautiful—the only beautiful 
day they had on this trip. But 
apart from the fun of fishing, 
what was in it for Dickerson? 


“I did it to meet new stu¬ 
dents and give them a chance 
to have a social interaction 
with a faculty member outside 
the classroom,” he says. “So 
when students go to their first j 
class next week, they might 
have another perspective. Its 
hard to take someone too seri¬ 
ously when you see them 
standing in the river with 
funny looking waders on.” 

After a few hours in the 
Otter Creek, Dickerson and 
the students all emerged for a 
big breakfast, cooked by the 
coleaders—eggs, fried potatoes, 
pancakes with real maple 
syrup. They cooked no fish 
that morning, nor for any 
meal, it turns out. Though they 


certainly caught their share of 
fish that day, the catch overall 
during the weekend was mod¬ 
est and the fish quite small. 

Brian McCurdy laughs. “I 
got one last night smaller than 
the fly I used!” George 
McElroy agrees, holding his 
fingers about two inches apart 
to show the size of his small- 
mouth bass: “77ns big. I could¬ 
n’t even feel it on the rod.” 

And these were the experi¬ 
enced fishermen. Luke Farrell 
admits, “I definitely caught a 
few trees, not any body parts 
yet,” he laughs, “but there’s 
always time for that!” 

But it’s the fishing, not the 
fish that is the point of the 
weekend. That and spending 
time with like-minded people. 
After all, out of an entering 
class of 550, these eight stu¬ 
dents were the ones who 
chose to spend three days 
camping and fly-fishing. 
Amazingly, and perhaps a testa¬ 
ment to the skill of the room¬ 
mate-matching staff, two of 
these students—Courtney 
Hess, from Helena, Montana, 
and Vanessa Blatt, from 
Brazil—are actually room¬ 
mates. All seem ready, after the 
frantic pace of orientation 
week, to really get to know 
each other, to make a real 
friend. 

Orientation director Nate 
Johnson agrees that the pace of 
orientation is intense: “We 
don’t give them a break; 
they’re really on the go. I think 
it’s a good taste of what their 
next four years will be like.” 

“I didn’t know anyone 
when I came,” says Luke 
Farrell. “It’s hard to get to 
know people in orientation. 
But this is a great way to get 
to know people. It’s been awe¬ 
some. I’ve learned a lot and 
had a lot of fun.” 


Fall 21 



They soon fell asleep with just their 
noses emerging from sleeping bags, 
hearing only the soft patter 
of raindrops on the wide flat river. 













ulu inartL 

Vis'ws 




A Tectonic Shift 

in Thinking 


BY JOHN M . 
McCARDELL, JR. 

Fom the President's Convocation 
Address delivered to the Class of 
2003, Sunday, September 12, 

1999, Mead Chapel 

A S WE BEGIN THE 200TH | 
YEAR of Middlebury 
College, we anticipate 
a year of celebration. In mid- 
October we will dedicate 
Bicentennial Hall, our new 
home for science. And thus, 
though an historian, I have 
chosen a scientific theme for 
this years address, and sought 
in that theme a broader appli¬ 
cation. Science humbles us. It 
tempers our pride. It reminds 
us that there are in fact some 
things that are not the product 
of human action and that 
therefore cannot be altered or 
even affected by human force. 

It requires us to put ourselves, 
our agendas, our triumphs and 
our failures, in perspective, and 
offers a valuable lesson in how 
time is measured. Indeed, if the 
arts and humanities urge us to 
extend the reach of our imper¬ 
fect human understanding, sci¬ 
ence reminds us of just how 
limited that reach is. 

Those of us who attended 
college in the 1960s, if asked 
to share our most vivid mem¬ 


ories, would probably not lead 
with the subject I would like 
to meditate upon with you. 
And yet, of the many revolu¬ 
tionary occurrences of that 
turbulent time, this particular 
theory would have to rank 
near the top of any list of ideas 
that fundamentally challenged 
conventional wisdom. The 
field was geology, the idea 
plate tectonics. (I here add a 
protective qualifier: the expli¬ 
cation you are about to hear is 
that of an historian, not a geol¬ 
ogist, and an historian who 
struggled through a year of 
freshman geology back in 
1967.) 

I approach my subject with 
another memorable late sixties 
relic in mind: the tie-dyed T- 
shirt. Standard apparel today, 
the T-shirt was, 30 years ago, as 
dramatic a challenge to con¬ 
ventional thinking about hab¬ 
erdashery as plate tectonics was 
to conventional thinking about 
the making of continents. 
Often those T-shirts had slo¬ 
gans. Those of you of a certain 
vintage may remember one of 
my favorites: it proclaimed in 
bold letters, “Reunite 
Gondwanaland.” 

The meaning of this mys¬ 
terious slogan became clear in 
geology class. The theory of 
plate tectonics, an explanation 


of what lay learners more 
readily know as continental 
drift, was formulated during 
the late 1960s. It posited that 
the Earth s surface layer, down 
to anywhere from 30 to 60 
miles, is composed of plates of 
varying sizes. These plates, 
called the lithosphere, rest 
upon, and slide over, a lower, 
weaker layer of partially 
molten rock. These lithospher¬ 
ic plates move across the sur¬ 
face of the earth. They collide, 
scrape, and slip, and at their 
boundaries one is apt to find 
active volcanoes and fault lines 
that cause earthquakes. 

From this theory devel¬ 
oped the idea of continental 
drift. The composition of 
continents is lighter than that 
of the ocean floor. They “float” 
higher in the Earth’s mantle. 
Over many, many millennia, as 
a result of this process, the 
continents as we know them 
have been formed. (My friend 
and colleague, Provost Ron 
Liebowitz, a geographer, has 
pointed out that we have evi¬ 
dence of plate tectonics right 
here on campus, in Kenyon 
Arena, in the form of two 
hockey banners that proclaim 
Middlebury as champions of 
the ECAC East one year and, 
several years later, champions 
of the ECAC West!) 


22 Middlebury Magazine 






























The theory of plate tec- 

of one single entity came mul- 

processes, and study their con- 

nity, if you will but seize it, to 


tonics, though not in fact syn- 

tiple entities. Or, put another 

sequences, and consider what 

broaden the reach of your own 


onymous with continental 

way, up until about 200 mil- 

seems to be the inevitability of 

understanding by getting to 


drift, helps explain continent 

lion years ago, Europe, Africa, 

still more Rwandas and 

know someone different from 


formation. A German scientist 

Asia, and the Americas were all 

Quebecs and Kosovos and East 

yourself, by studying a subject 


named Alfred Wegener prom- 

joined. Then the separation 

Timors, inclined as we may be 

you have not previously stud¬ 


ulgated the idea of continental 

began. And the term “diversi- 

to throw up our hands, we 

ied, by taking advantage of the 


drift at the beginning of this 

ty” began to have greater 

return to the hope contained 

diversity all around you to test 


century, though much of what 

meaning. 

on the simple T-shirt: “Re- 

your beliefs, to stretch your 


he noted had been discovered 

I ask you to ponder for a 

unite Gondwanaland.” If we 

minds, to build your character, 


centuries earlier by scientists, 

moment the significance of 

take that charge to heart, and 

in short, to become educated. 


philosophers, and cartogra- 

these discoveries—and not just 

take it seriously, we will not set 

Though it may lie beyond 


phers (look especially at the 

for geology—and then to 

off on a fools errand to try to 

our power to control the 


“fit” between eastern South 

return to that seemingly 

reverse the natural order. But 

forces of plate tectonics, it is 


America and western Africa). 

humorous slogan, “Reunite 

we may see, in our own com- 

within our reach to deal with 


During the Paleozoic Era— 

Gondwanaland.” Consider the 

munity and amongst our 

their effect, both real and sym- 


“Science humbles us. 

It tempers 

our 


pride. It reminds us that there are some 


things tha 

are not the product of human 


action anc 

that therefore cannot be 


altered or 

even affected by human force.” 


some 250 to 300 million years 

theory of plate tectonics and 

friends and colleagues, old and 

bolic, and never to forget our 


ago—it is now believed the 

its impact on the development 

new, opportunities to make 

common humanity. This is no 


Earth consisted of a single 

of societies, cultures, languages, 

diversity a force for good—to 

easy task. As these plates shift 


continent. Wegener named this 

literatures, customs. Consider 

see the possibilities, on the 

they abrade; they collide; they 


super continent Pangaea. His 

how much of what our own 

scale, at least, of this communi¬ 

shudder and sometimes 


work built upon that of an 

world treats as most important 

ty, of reuniting Gondwanaland. 

explode. Every tendency in the 


Austrian geologist named 

relates in some way to this 

The Class of 2003 represents 

lives we lead is toward frag¬ 


Edward Suess, who also 

simple idea of regular, consis¬ 

42 states, 32 countries, and 6 

mentation, isolation, and their 


believed that parts of a single, 

tent, inevitable subdivision— 

continents. We have thus, in 

kindred xenophobia, intoler¬ 


huge southern continent had 

splitting off, sliding away, form¬ 

our own way, reunited 

ance. If there is any place on 


split apart, creating the Atlantic 

ing something new. Think of 

Gondwanaland at this 

this good Earth, and any peo¬ 


and Indian Oceans, as well as 

how presumptuously we cate¬ 

moment, on this campus, in 

ple, where those forces of sepa¬ 


Europe, Africa, the Americas, 

gorize knowledge as “Eastern” 

this chapel. Does this mean 

ratism may be arrested and a 


and parts of Asia. He named 

and “Western.” Ponder the 

that we have created, or seek 

civil, respectful exploration of 


this continent... Gondwan- 

hubris of we mere mortals 

to create, uniformity of belief? 

difference make diversity a 


aland. 

believing that we have some¬ 

Of course not. That is no more 

basis for a community’s greater 


The super continent, 

how caused changes in the 

possible than recreating a single 

strength, let it be here. 


whether called Pangaea or 

natural order and that we have 

continent. Diversity must not 

Let it be you. 


Gondwanaland, began to break 

it within our power to redi¬ 

be stifled by those marching 



apart during the Jurassic peri¬ 

rect, even halt, changes whose 

under diversity’s banner. But it 



od, some 130 to 200 million 

time is measured on a very dif¬ 

does mean that for the next 



years ago, as a result of the 

ferent scale. 

four years the Class of 2003 



process of plate tectonics. Out 

Yet, if we study these 

has an extraordinary opportu- 






Fall 

2 3 















We shape our buildings 


hour or two before the sched¬ 
uled presentation, Middlebury 
learned that Gould could not 
£et to Vermont due to dancer- 


insets, top left: Making chemistry or magic? Professor Sunhee Choi stands in a 
fog of evaporating liquid nitrogen as she makes ice cream at the banquet. 
Middle: Claire Gargalli '64, chair of the Board of Trustees, bestows a Bicentennial 
Medal on former governor and U.S. senator Robert Stafford '35; Right: an organic 
chemistry lab. 


O THOSE WHO THINK 
tackling big questions 
! is not of interest today, 
witness the fact that the 
Center for the Arts Concert 
Hall was nearly filled to capac¬ 
ity with students, alumni, 
faculty, and staff who came 
to engage the subject, What Is 
Life? 

They were attending the 
annual Nicholas R. Clifford 
Symposium, which was the 
kick-off event for a three-day 
celebration of the sciences at 
Middlebury. The culmination 
of this celebration would be 
the official dedication of 
Bicentennial Hall, Middle¬ 
bury s magnificent new 
academic building and the 
Colleges 21st-century home 
for the sciences. 

During the Clifford 
Symposium, James F. Childress, 
professor of medical education 
at the University ofVirginia, 
talked about his work in 
bioethics and the issues that 
scientific advances bring to 
the fore—issues in the murky 
region where religion, morali¬ 
ty, and science intersect. 

Childress was supposed 
to be followed, later in the 
day, by a keynote lecture from 
Stephen Jay Gould, but an 


Photographs by Bob Hand elman and Tad Merrick 


24 Middlebury Magazine 




















thereafter they shape us. 



force,” one alumna said of the 
dynamic presentation given by 
the associate professor of biol¬ 
ogy. “I’ve heard Gould talk and 
I preferred her. She really 
worked the crowd. One of our 
own became a star.” 

At noon the next day, a 
science media panel brought 
four prestigious science jour¬ 
nalists and a large lunchtime 
crowd to the central hall of the 
new building.Called the Grand 
Hall, it is indeed that, with one 
wall a four-story glass window 
looking out onto farmland and 
rolling hills. 

That afternoon and the 
next brought lectures and sym¬ 
posia with Middlebury faculty 
(Grace Spatafora, Rich 
Wolfson, Kate Sonderegger, 
Richard Arthur) and alumni 
(Achievement Award Winners 
Bernard Cohen ’50, Sharon 
Hostler ’61, and Roger Easton 
’43; not present was award- 
winner Andrew Cohen ’76). 

Dinner for everyone asso¬ 
ciated with the building— 
faculty, architects, donors, and 
VIPs—was a magical event. 
Literally. After dinner Sunhee 
Choi, professor of chemistry, 
stirred a bowl Rill of cream, 
milk, powdered sugar, and 
chocolate syrup, while Chaz 
Sternberg, catering manager 


ous wind conditions at the 
LaCuardia Airport. (The wind 
was indeed strong, even in 
Vermont. A large spruce tree 


in front of Bicentennial Hall, 
recently planted, had toppled 
over that morning.) 

Stepping into the breech. 


and with barely an hour to 
prepare, Grace Spatafora gave 
the after-dinner lecture to rave 
reviews: “It was a tour de 


Fall 25 





























^ ^ieria>-vieW of Bicentennial Hall (top, r]ght)fHad(| 
Coffrin Hall (bottorti'Jeft); Freeman lnternational 


This page from top: Chalkboards are everywhere—study spaces, lounges, class¬ 
rooms, even the Great Hall; Francois Clemmons, Twilight Artist-ln-Residence, sang 
several songs after dinner and illustrated yet another great use for the Great 
Hall—singing; President McCardell presents the Bicentennial Medal to former 
President James I. Armstrong and his wife Carol A. Armstrong—the science 
library was named in their honor; visitors and guests filled the Great Hall and 
two of its four balconies for Saturday's dedication ceremony. 



It* 


for dining services, added 
liquid nitrogen. Almost imme¬ 
diately, the liquid solidified and 
voila! Chocolate ice cream! 

On Saturday the actual 
dedication of the building was 
held in the Great Hall. As a 
wind ensemble played from the 
first balcony, the faculty proces¬ 
sion, in full academic robes, 
marched up the aisle and onto 
the dais.President McCardell 
introduced Frank Winkler, 
Gamaliel Painter Professor of 
Physics, who, with a big grin, 
declared, “Well, here we are!” 

“When I came in 1969,” 
Winkler said, “scientific research 
went on but it was a curiosity. 
Today virtually every science 
student collaborates with faculty 
on research. They do research 
on campus.They venture far 
afield to collect data in regions 
from the Arctic to the Antarctic 
and all latitudes in between. 
They give presentations at 
national conferences, coauthor 


papers in the most prestigious 
scientific journals. What could 
give science more immediacy 
for an undergraduate student 
than this?” 

That kind of faculty-student 
mentoring was exemplified as 
the four Alumni Achievement 
Award winners accepted their 
awards from Richard Silton 
’80, the president of the alumni 
association. All mentioned the 
professors who had inspired 
and mentored them during 
their years at Middlebury. 

President McCardell 
described some research proj¬ 
ects that undergraduates are 
conducting with current facul¬ 
ty. But, he said, “the education 
that takes place in this building 
involves not just courses and 
research for science students or 
majors; fully 40 percent of the 
Middlebury student body pass¬ 
es through Bicentennial Hall 
to take classes each week, both 
in the sciences and in other 





































Above: Panel discussion with, left to 
right, Rich Wolfson (physics), Grace 
Spatafora (biology), James Childress 
(Univ. of VA), Maggie O'Brien (presi¬ 
dent of St. Mary's College of Maryland), 
Kate Sonderegger (religion), Richard 
Arthur (philosophy). 


disciplines whose faculty teach 
in the fine classrooms in this 
building.... Illumination and 
discovery—these are the hall¬ 
marks, not just of science but 
of liberal education in general. 
The spirit of inquiry that char¬ 
acterizes this building in its 
architectural features and in 
the work that takes places 
within its classrooms and labo¬ 
ratories is the essence of liberal 
study.” 


Claire Waterhouse Gargalli 
’64, chair of the Board of 
Trustees, spoke for the trustees 
when she said, “Today is a day 
for renewing our commitment 
to the future in which we 
resolve with firmness and forti¬ 
tude to continue working for 
the strengthening of Middle- 
bury in every possible way.... 
As board members this is our 
pledge to the College today.” 

A Bicentennial Medal was 
awarded to Robert T. Stafford 
’35, former U.S. senator and 
governor ofVermont and a for¬ 
mer College trustee. Stafford, 
who was honored for his envi¬ 
ronmental achievements, met 
his wife, Helen Kelley Stafford 
’38, at the College, and said he 
was “truly touched by receiving 
this medal from Middlebury 
for which I have such a 
deep affection. My years 
at Middlebury were the four 
happiest in my life.” 

The science library in 
Bicentennial Hall was named 
in honor of former President 
James I. Armstrong and his wife 
Carol A. Armstrong, who both 
received Bicentennial Medals. 
Both Armstrongs spoke briefly 
and President Armstrong, call¬ 
ing the convocation “incandes¬ 
cent” got some big laughs as he 
capped his remarks in Latin. 

The afternoon ended with 
a cookout in Discovery Court, 
an outdoor patio tucked into 
the sunniest corner of the 
building. Dining Services, 
which knocked itself out pro¬ 
viding one lovely meal after 
another for this extravaganza, 
efficiently choreographed 
the buffet, which ended with 
a cake in the shape of 
Bicentennial Hall. 

Like the building itself, the 
cake exemplified the best in 
form and function: it was plen¬ 
ty big enough for the crowd, it 
was beautiful, and it tasted 
great. 


Who Said Its Not 
Easy Being Green? 


ou can’t miss Bicentennial 

Hall: From most locations in 
town, it can be seen rising up over 
six stories on the northwest edge 
of the Middlebury campus. And 
from inside Bicentennial Hall, you 
can’t miss Vermont, either. The 
immense and ubiquitous windows 
seem to pull the countryside in, 
from all directions, as far as the eye 
can see. Standing before the view, 
one is humbled to realize that 
although we can build an edifice as 
magnificent as Bicentennial Hall, 
nature is at once our teacher and 
our responsibility. 

Middlebury s sense of responsi¬ 
bility is very evident in the design 
and construction of Bicentennial 
Hall, which is considered to be 
one of the most ecologically sensi¬ 
tive buildings of its type in the 
country. Much of the construction 
material was made from recycled 
natural products, all the wood used was harvested and processed 
in an ecologically sensitive manner, and many energy-efficient 
features have been incorporated. 

The 220,000-square-foot building, designed by Payette 
Associates, contains over 125,000 board feet of “green-certified” 
wood; linoleum flooring made from wood flour and linseed oil; 
stone, mined with a less invasive mining process than is normally 
used; mineral rock-wool insulation made from a by-product of 
iron smelting; and drywall made from recyclables.The sound¬ 
proofing system contains recycled steel, and the mortar netting 
used for masonry work was made from recycled plastic. Most 
rooms have been equipped with sensors that turn the lights oft 
when the room is not in use, and a heat-recovery system using 
discharged heat to warm outside air has been installed. 

“We have designed 85 graduate and undergraduate science 
projects for numerous renowned institutions, but Middlebury s 
vision. . . was unparalleled,” commented Bob Schaeflher of 
Payette Associates, the architect overseeing the building con¬ 
struction. “The forward-looking structure pushes the envelope 
of sustainable design, energy-efficient systems, and a 100-year- 
plus life span beyond any facility of its kind.” 

After spending just a little time in Bicentennial Hall, there 
can be no doubt that great discoveries will be made here. As 
Maggie O’Brien, president of St. Mary’s College, said during the 
Clifford Symposium panel discussion, “Now Middlebury has a 
facility worthy of her science faculty.” 



Looking down on the first two 
balconies and the floor of the Grand 
Hall. 


Fall 































THAT SPECIAL BOND BETWEEN STUDENT AND TEACHER: 

SHE WORKS THEM TILL THEY'RE RAGGED, COOKS KOREAN FOOD 
FOR THEM, AND MODELS WHAT IT IS TO BE 
A WOMAN AND A SCIENTIST. 


BY KIM ASCH 


F or once, Chemistry Professor Sunhee Choi found 
herself at a podium without a story to tell. She was in 
Oxford, England, at an international conference for 
researchers of a particular cancer-fighting agent, and her paper was 
selected as one of the top eight out of 100. All day, scientists had 
been quoting from “Choi ct al ” to support their own work, and 
now they wanted the author to stand in the spotlight and review 
her findings. 

28 Middlebury Magazine 


Famous among students for her alternately inspirational anec¬ 
dotes, passionate lectures, and corny one-liners (/.£., science is 
pHun), Middlebury chemistry departments diminutive dynamo 
was momentarily speechless. Understandable. The other seven 
papers to receive such distinction originated from big research uni¬ 
versities, as is almost always the case. “Choi ct at ” was the only rank¬ 
ing project to come out of a liberal arts college and to list under¬ 
graduates as coauthors. 

Photograph by Alan Jakubek 


















“I wasn’t prepared for it,” she 
says, still savoring that moment of 
glory before 300 of her peers last 
March. “I told them, this work is 
all done by undergraduates.” 

Lots of ears should have been 
tingling back on campus, because 
right then someone in the audi¬ 
ence piped up,“Lets all congratu¬ 
late Middlebury undergraduates!” 
and there was a rousing round of 
applause for Chois student col¬ 
laborators. 

“They are so famous,” Choi 
says. “They are my pride.” 

Its summer and she is taking a 
break in her gutted office in what 
is left of the old science depart¬ 
ment. Soon, she will embark on a 
fresh semester in the spectacular, 
new Bicentennial Hall, but right 
now, Choi is busy teaching a 
course to high school students 
who have shown an interest in 
chemistry and Middlebury. She is 
just the person to turn them on 
to both. 

In the classroom, as in the lab, 
she’s a maestro. Tan, fit, and per¬ 
fectly attired in a red, sleeveless 
tunic, matching cotton mini, and 
chunky sandals, the colored chalk 
is her baton as she writes out 
complex chemical formulas on 
the blackboard. In staccato 
English (Korean is her first lan¬ 
guage) she tells the story of these 
letters and numbers and how they 
come together to fight cancer. 

She calls this research project her 
“Opus No. 7.” 

“My team is a symphony 
orchestra,” she says, referring to 
her student researchers. “We use 
tons of instruments. I am the con¬ 
ductor. We do biochemistry, 
organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry.” 

Thanks to two grants over a six-year period totaling $222,000 
from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of 
Health, Choi and her students are conducting basic research on the 
mechanism of anticancer activity of the platinum(IV) compound. 
The platinum compound has been shown to be toxic to tumors 
that are resistant to cisplatin, the most popular anticancer drug. 
Understanding how platinum(IV) compounds attack cancer cells 
should lead to the development of improved chemotherapeutic 
drugs, Choi says. Pointing to a diagram of cancerous DNA being 


attacked by the fearsome cis- 
platiiyshe is radiant:“Isn’t it beau¬ 
tiful?” 

In May, all five graduating 
seniors who majored in straight 
chemistry were women, four of 
them Choi’s advisees. Over the 
course of her 12 years at 
Middlebury, she has bonded with 
many of her undergraduate col¬ 
leagues. She and husband Jim 
Larrabee, a chemistry professor 
and associate dean of the faculty, 
continue to socialize with alum¬ 
ni, attending their weddings, 
medical school graduations, and 
dinner parties. More often, they 
invite former students over to 
their house for feasts of Choi’s 
favorite Korean foods or 
Larrabee’s famous chicken wings. 

But this group of women 
majors is special to Choi because 
she feels so strongly about steer¬ 
ing women toward careers in sci¬ 
ence. She is relentlessly proud of 
her female proteges, adding her 
own spin to a slogan she picked 
up from actress Goldie Hawn. 
“Women can do 400 things,” the 
superstar told Good Housekeeping 
magazine. “Women scientists can 
do 401 things,” Choi asserts. 

Every chemistry major is 
required to read biographies of 
Marie Curie, the Polish-born 
physicist who, with her French 
husband Pierre Curie, shared the 
1903 Nobel Prize for physics 
with Henri Becquerel for the dis¬ 
covery of radioactivity. 

“My students tease me that I 
try to turn all of them into Marie 
Curie,” she says. Not exactly, but 
she does require that they “try to 
be the best scientists and the best 
citizens, like Marie.” It can be tough living up to what Choi deems 
is your best. 

“Basically, she expects you to know everything,” says Sarah 
Delaney ’99, who just started working toward her Ph.D. in chem¬ 
istry from Caltech. Amy Kinner ’99, now in her first year in the 
master’s/Ph.D. program in environmental health science at UC- 
Berkeley, agrees,“She’s definitely more rigorous than most. Sunhee 
definitely expects a lot of us. She would give us a quiz at the end 
of class on the material we had just been taught to make sure we 
were paying attention.” 



Choi s physical 
chemistry course 
is known as the 
crucible of the 
major; if you can 
make it through 
that, you’ll survive 


30 Middlebury Magazine 


Photograph by Bob Handelman 










Choi’s physical chemistry 
course is known as the crucible 
of the major; if you can make it 
through that, you’ll survive to 
graduate. Joanna Wolkowski ’99, 
who will enter Yale’s Ph.D. pro¬ 
gram in chemistry next year after 
taking a break to help coach 
Wellesley’s basketball team, 
remembers the nearly insur¬ 
mountable standards Choi set for 
them and how she helped them 
achieve more than they ever 
thought they could. 

At one point during the 
semester, Wolkowski and her class¬ 
mates complained that the work¬ 
load was so overwhelming, they 
weren’t getting enough sleep. The 
students dragged themselves into 
class, rumpled and in sweats. Choi, 
as always, was dressed to the nines. 

“You sleep four hours, get up, 
take a walk, wear lots of make-up,” 

Wolkowski and Delaney remem¬ 
ber her telling them. “Sleep during 
summer.” 

The conductor decided the 
struggling orchestra needed more 
rehearsal time. First, she began holding review sessions over lunch. 
Then, she added Sunday meetings at her home. She cooked them 
dinners and shared stories about her days as a student in Korea and 
then at Princeton, where she met her husband. Soon, her students 
began reciprocating with dinner invitations. Wolkowski, who emi¬ 
grated from Poland in 1986, made traditional foods from home. 
Shwe Mon ’99, now in the Ph.D. program for chemistry at Johns 
Hopkins University, cooked Burmese meals. 

In socializing with their mentor, the students observed a 
Renaissance woman in action, balancing the demands of raising 
two children with her passion for chemistry and her extracurricu¬ 
lar pursuits such as hiking, gardening, cooking, classical music, and 
clothes. 

“She’s got to be the best-dressed professor at Middlebury,” 
Delaney says. “I think part of her attitude is, you get up in the 
morning, get dressed up, put on your make-up, and when you get 
to class it’ll help you focus.” 

Back in the summer classroom, Choi is drawing a picture for 
the high school students to help them understand why basic 
research is so important. She’s no artist. 

“What am I trying to draw?” she quizzes the class. 

“An elephant?” the teens guess, giggling. 

Choi explains that cancer is like the elephant, and researchers 
are like the blindfolded little stick figures she draws in a circle 
around it. All are trying to get a picture of what’s in front of them 
by examining one little portion. They have to share information 
with each other to know it’s an elephant. 


That’s why basic research and 
collaboration are so important, she 
says, because understanding the 
little pieces and how they fit 
together will lead to big answers. 
Choi is a firm believer that perse¬ 
verance in life, as in the lab, achieves 
results. 

“I have worked so hard to get 
anything in my life. That’s my 
karma, I think,” she says. “When I 
get a grant, somehow I have to 
work two or three times as hard. I’m 
a foreigner, my English is so bad, but 
I get it.” 

If anything, her imperfect 
English endears her to students, 
who are relieved to find a flaw. 
Wolkowski and Delaney sometimes 
fall into what they call “Sunhee 
speak,” and Wolkowski’s basketball 
teammates picked up on it, too. At 
the end of a practice, they would bid 
each other good-bye the Sunhee 
way,“Ya!Ya! See you tomallow!” 

Choi is never very far away 
from her students. Wolkowski 
remembers tutoring a group of 
underclassmen for her Introduction 
to Chemistry course one night and getting stuck on a problem. 
“There was no hesitation, we would call her at home if we need¬ 
ed her help,” she says. 

One particular night, Choi was giving one of her famous din¬ 
ner parties when Wolkowski called. “She came over in a dress with 
a big sweatshirt over it and these huge boots—because it was rain¬ 
ing—reeking of Korean food,” she recalls. “I think it didn’t bother 
her at all because I think she’s so dedicated. She wanted to make 
sure we really understood the material.” 

When the time came to apply to graduate school, Choi insist¬ 
ed they only apply to five. “You get into every one,” she told them. 
“Best to make decision sooner rather than later.”The girls laughed 
and rolled their eyes. “She was always dropping names of the best 
schools,” Delaney recalls. “We were like, yeah, whatever.” 

As it turned out, each of the five women went on to good 
graduate schools. Suzanne Muchene ’99 is pursuing a master’s of 
public health in epidemiology at Boston University. MIT and 
Caltech fought over Delaney. Kinner is at Berkeley. Mon is at Johns 
Hopkins. Wolkowski applied to University of Chicago, 
Northwestern, Princeton, and Yale and was amazed to learn she’d 
been accepted at each. 

Only Choi was unfazed. 

“She’s just very confident in our abilities,” Wolkowski says. 
“More than we are in ourselves.” 


Kirn Asch is a writer living in Burlington , Vermont. 



“You sleep four 
hours, get up, take 
a walk, wear lots 
of make-up,” 

Wolkowski and 
Delaney remem¬ 
ber her telling 

them. ‘Sleep 
during summer. 


Snapshot by Sunhee Choi 


Fall 31 





BY BOB PACK 

T he lyric form of my new sequence of poems, 
Rounding It Out (The University of Chicago Press, 
1999) which centers itself in the theme of the 
inseparability of loss and cherished ties to people and 
places, employs a double refrain as a musical principle to 
represent symbolically the dust-to-dust circularities of 
human experience. The book thus opens with a morning 
song in praise of sunlight: 



The fleetingness and brevity of human time is experienced 
within the context of cosmic time, the life and death of our own 
sun, which will implode, so it is estimated, “about five billion years 
from now” Yet the sun can be possessed in a moment of personal 
warmth, in the reflected image of a “yellow flower,” and in the 
poem that, like the sun, is rounded unto itself in musical celebra¬ 
tion. 

The first line of each poem returns (sometimes in a slightly var¬ 
ied version) as the last line, and the second line returns (also with 
variations) somewhere in the middle of the poem.The poems echo 
each other as themes, such as absence or self-awareness or the 
exhilarations of nature as spectacle, return and are modified, so that, 
for example, the morning song that opens the book becomes the 
nocturne that concludes the collection: 


AUBADE 

Our sun has left just half its life to spill— 

About five billion years before it must 

Explode, collapse upon itself, and will 

Back to the universe its final thrust 

Of heat we creatures long have counted on. 

Waking warm here in bed, we trust 

This light to help imagine when light will be gone 

About five billion years from now; it must 

Experience diminishment, 

As must we too, as must we all. 

Observers, we can find our last content 
In comprehension that the fall 
Of yellow petals on our window sill, 

Like little suns, is what we have to will, 

A melody to whistle in the dawn: 

Our sun has left just half its life to spill. 


The imagistic content of the poems, as well as their structure 
in four sections, Morning, Mid-Day, Evening, Night, designates in 
addition to the changing light of day, all departures and returns that 
are included in the natural cycles of a completed lifetime. In an 
important sense the book is about its own chosen form—music as 
a means of both celebration and lamentation—heightened by 
deliberated self-awareness, the pauses which enable us to hold on 
to and savor our visual perceptions and our most precious emo¬ 
tions. 


32 Middlebury Magazine 










NOCTURNE 

How little separates me from the night: 

My moist breath merges with the moistened air; 
From my cupped hands a flutter of reflected light 
Ascends as if a bird had been enfolded there— 

A gathered whiteness that can fly 
My message of replenished care, 

My offer to the dark, my sole reply. 

My moist breath merges with the moistened air, 
Summons to its blurred self what waits beyond. 
Projects its own illumination to 
Moon-laden branches by the frozen pond, 

To cavern icicles our awed ancestors knew. 

1 see how cloudy indivisibility 


I think of these 16-line poems (two lines are repeats) as a 
cross between being a sonnet and a villanelle with their 
determined pattern of returning lines.The poems faithful¬ 
ly (as in a vow) employ meter and rhyme, assonance and 
alliteration, taking delight and finding consolation in the 
sensuousness of our native tongue even in the face of 
inevitable and ongoing loss in a universe of ceaseless flux, 
changing, as I see it, without sponsored purpose or desti¬ 
nation, indifferent to human longing and aspiration. 

Although my own philosophical perspective is skepti¬ 
cal and atheistic, since 1 believe that whatever meaning 
exists in life must be invented and affirmed through 
human behavior and commitment, nevertheless I consider 
the poems in Rounding It Out to be deeply influenced by 
the sacred poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins because of 
my similar attempt to ground meaning in musical affects, 
patterns of sound, metaphorical designs. Taking life seri¬ 
ously, caring for other people and other forms of life, is holiness 
enough for me. In his poem celebrating the music of Henry 
Purcell, Hopkins wishes that his poetry will “fan fresh our wits 
with wonder.” It is a wish I profoundly share for my sonnetelles. 

The failure today of obscurantist poets to employ language as 
a communal medium, eschewing any attempt to communicate as 
clearly as possible the feelings of their beliefs, can be seen, I believe, 
as an aspect of the self-indulgent condition of contemporary cul¬ 
ture. Such corruption, of course, is not new. Breakdown of com¬ 
munication is portrayed paradigmatically in the biblical account of 
the tower of Babel. Originally, “the whole earth was one language, 
and of one speech,” but in punishment for pride and the ambition 
to exceed human limits, the Lord punished mankind: “Let us go 
down, and there confound their language, that they may not 


1 )ivides, how whirled division mists to white; 
I recognize lulled voices calling me, 

How little separates me from the night. 


Illustrations by Hal May forth 


Fall 33 












understand one another’s speech.” In effect, retelling the story of 
Babel,Wordsworth, in his appendix to Preface to Lyrical Ballads? says: 

“But the first poets... spake a language which, although unusu¬ 
al, was still the language of men. This circumstance, however, was 
disregarded by their successors; they found that they could please 
by easier means: they became proud of modes of expression which 
they themselves had invented. . . until, the taste of men becoming 
gradually perverted, this language was received as natural language. 

.. this dicdon became daily more and more corrupt, thrusting out 
of sight the plain humanities of nature.” 

Thus the search for Hopkinsian freshness, the original avant 
garde intention, became perverted into the desperate pursuit of 
newness for its own sake with our own age specializing in seeking 
newness in affront and contrived offensiveness. 

Wordsworths powerful point is that humankinds unity with 
nature and with other human beings has been replaced by the 
prideful assertion of the individualistic self. In the Prelude, praising 
his dear friend Coleridge’s “learning,” his “gorgeous eloquence,” 
Wordsworth nevertheless condemns the “self-created sustenance” 
of Coleridges mind as “Debarred from Natures living images,/ 
Compelled to be a life unto herself.” Coleridge’s art had failed for 
Wordsworth because it had become too eccentric, too self-invent¬ 
ed. Yeats stated the same idea even more bluntly: “All that is per¬ 
sonal soon rots.” The artist must emphasize the ongoing life of our 
species, rather than his or her own individuality. “I am a crowd, I 
am a lonely man, I am nothing,” exclaims Yeats. From the more 
visionary perspective of time “stretching before and after,” person¬ 
al identity is insignificant and will be obliterated. If anything 
remains, it will be what Yeats called “Monuments of unaging intel¬ 
lect.” 

The attempt to cling to the assertion of the self, in my view, is 
a subtle form of the denial of death and the inability to accept 
natures ephemerality.The rebellion against death—the horror of 
the idea of death as personal annihilation—may be mitigated when 
we identify ourselves with our species, with existence itself. 
Affirming this spirit of the impersonalized self, the speaker of my 
poems in this book, whose memories become a “storied life,” is 
rendered as collective, myself as anybody; he celebrates nature as a 
spectacle and at the same time mourns natures indifference which 
we experience falsely as cruelty. And so, too, the “you” who is 
addressed throughout the cycle, combines the main figures in the 
speakers life: wife, mother, father, son, daughter, as in the poem 
“Invitation”: 

IN V I TATI 0 N 

Before you leave, pause here once more with me, 

Each one of you alone and one in all, 

All merged or each emerging as I see 

My storied life in you and call 

To you as lover, daughter, wife, or friend, 

Approaching through red leaves in dwindling fall 
Or vanishing where snow-blown footprints end, 

Each one of you alone and one in all. 

Son, father, stranger, lives I might have lived, 

I summon you within the circle of my mind, 

Among the mighty maples I have loved, 

34 Middlebury Magazine 


To share their shadowed whisperings and find 
Acceptance in a reappearing oriole, 

Solace in grief when grief is rhymed. 

Inheritor, my judge, my memory, 

Before you leave, pause here once more with me. 

Falling into despair can come from the obsession with ones 
individual mortality. Such despair, the mind failing to cure itself of 
its awareness of its own passing moment in the sun, is the result of 
overemphasizing ones singular life so that even as a poet one 
becomes trapped in one’s own personal language, the need for 
expression outweighing the will for communication.The cure for 
this fever of self-regard, “where but to think is to be full of sor¬ 
rows,” as Keats says, lies only in seeing ones life as part of ongoing 
and evolving nature and as part of the community which will 
include ones inheritors if ones poems survive. The self cannot sus¬ 
tain itself only as a self, for then its fate is death, absolute and final. 
An enlarged imagining, however, contained within a form that 
possesses the memory of a tradition (such as the durable and 
enduring sonnet), perceives that the death of the self is to the uni¬ 
verse what the death of a cell is to the human body—the means of 
nature’s continuity, the cycling of the seasons and the culminating 
image of the harvest with its “wheels of baled hay.” Proper mourn¬ 
ing—a primary function of poetry—requires the selflessness of 
such impersonal perspective. This is the perspective I seek to 
achieve in each poem as a lyric entity which therefore allows 
lament to be free of selfrpity and self-indulgence and exalts cele¬ 
bration that goes, as Wordsworth says, “too deep for tears,” beyond 
chance and momentary individual assertion and good fortune. 

BALED HAY 

Wheels of baled hay bask in October sun: 

Gold circles strewn across the sloping field, 

They seem arranged as if each one 

Has found its place, and viewed together they appeal 

To some glimpsed order in my mind 

Preceding my chance pausing here— 

A randomness that also seems designed. 

Gold circles strewn across the sloping field 
Evoke a silence deep as my deep fear 
Of emptiness; I feel the scene requires 
A listener who can respond with words, yet who 
Prolongs the silence that I still desire 
Relieved as clacking crows come flashing through, 

Whose blackness shows chance radiance of fire. 

Yet stillness in the field remains for everyone: 

Wheels of baled hay bask in October sun. 


Rounding It Out is Bob Pack’s 18th collection of poetry. Pack is pro¬ 
fessor emeritus of English, having taught at Middlebury for 34 years, 
and was director of the Bread Loaf Writers’Conference from 1973 to 
1994. Currently he is teaching in the English department and Honors 
College at the University of Montana in Missoula. 







BY JUDY OLINICK 

UESS WHO this is,” Alya Baker beams, popping into the 
■ ■■ Russian department office with a new snapshot.The smil- 
^^®ing four-year-old in the photo is a miniature edition of 
Anne Sudkamp ’83, M.A. Russian School ’90, one of the former 
students who send Alya (Aleksandra Grigorievna as they address 
her in Russian) hundreds of cards, letters, pictures, e-mail messages, 
wedding invitations, and birth announcements every year. They 


head straight for her door whenever they return to Middlebury. A 
jubilant contingent was on hand in San Francisco last December, 
when Alya received the 1998 postsecondary language teacher of 
the year award from AATSEEL, the American Association of 
Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages. 

Professor Thomas R. Beyer, Jr., the Russian department chair, 
says that there is “magic” but no secret to Alya’s rapport with her 


Photograph by Alan Jakubek 


Fall 35 






students. “Far more than helping them through the intricacies of 
Russians verbs of motion,” he says, “Alya has sung with them, 
cooked for them, stored their furniture, and sometimes just sipped 
tea with them and lent a sympathetic ear. Having done this at 
Middlebury for over 30 years, she has great friends and admirers 
across several generations.” 

Alyas students themselves explain eloquently and precisely 
what makes her so special and why the extraordinary effort they 
devote to her courses is both a moral obligation and a joy. David 
Andrews ’80, now an associate professor of Slavic languages at 
Georgetown University, recalls, “We used to do a fond parody of 
Mrs. Baker assigning homework for a typical day in second-year 
Russian: ‘ Khorosho , rebiata, (all right, guys) 
for tomorrow read the introductory text to 
the new lesson. Learn all the new words 
and expressions, and prepare the text for 
discussion. Read over the grammar points 
and familiarize yourselves with the con¬ 
cepts. Then go to the language lab and 
work on all the oral exercises. Of course, 
don’t forget to study for the test tomorrow. 

And now, for your written assignment. 

“The work load was legendary, but we 
did it. We did it because we loved it, because 
we were inspired, because the last thing we 
would ever do is let Mrs. Baker down, 
because it was all so beautifully and logical¬ 
ly planned and organized. We did it because 
we knew that Mrs. Baker was working even 
harder than we were. Even then we were 
able to appreciate the staggering amount of 
work, time, and care that Mrs. Baker put 
into everything connected with her teach¬ 
ing, that she was able to anticipate our every thought and problem, 
that she could see right into our heads. Now that I’m a professor 
myself, I am even more in awe of her.” 

Alya’s classroom style might be described as “old fashioned,” or 
what David Ayres ’78 calls “soft but strict” in contrast to her “soft 
and friendly” manner at the Russian table in the Chateau. Aside 
from occasional videos, little technology is in evidence, but there 
is plenty of chalk, filling the boards with clear, graceful Cyrillic 
script, perfectly recapitulating the lesson for those who copy it 
accurately. 

Looking through the window, a viewer would see a deceptive¬ 
ly low-key scene with lots of friendly laughter, but in fact not a 
minute is wasted. Nearly everyone is on full alert and an unpre¬ 
pared student has no hope of escaping detection. Ayres, now man¬ 
aging partner of Brobeck Hale and Dorr in London, speaks for 
many when he says/ k I wanted so much to please her. I guess we all 
did. I never had another teacher whose approval was so important 
to me and whose disappointment at my occasionally poor per¬ 
formance was so devastating. I think that’s what made her so spe¬ 
cial. That she cared so much.” 

A lya’s students are always astonished to learn that she 
never visited the Soviet Union until 1961. Her family, along 


with many other Russians, moved to Yugoslavia in the 1920s, and 
she was born in the town of Subotica, near the Hungarian border. 
The family home was “a typical peasant house” with electricity but 
no indoor plumbing. “My mother and I hauled all the water from 
a well about 15 minutes’ walk away,” she says. “It was particularly 
interesting on wash days, when we had to carry and store it all.” 
She remembers the wonderful fruit trees and raspberries her father 
planted in the yard, the farmers stopping at the house with fresh 
produce on their way to the town market, and the excitement 
when her older brother came home on visits from his military 
boarding school. But she also has frightening early memories of 
World War II. Hungarian soldiers searched the house at bayonet 


point; advancing Soviet troops and retreating Germans marched 
down her street; and both the Americans and the Germans 
bombed the town several times. Alya spent most of her childhood 
without her father. “He joined the Serbian army, was taken pris¬ 
oner by the Hungarians and released,joined the German army, and 
ended the war in a displaced persons camp in Germany,” she 
recounts.The family was finally reunited in America in 1955. 

Alya acquired her first three native languages in Subotica. At 
home, she spoke, read, and wrote Russian. In her elementary 
school, in a Hungarian neighborhood, she spoke Hungarian, 
which is not related to Russian, through second grade. After the 
war, she attended a Serbian school and quickly learned so-called 
Serbo-Croatian, which is really both Serbian—written in Cyrillic, 
like Russian—and Croatian—closely related, but written in the 
Roman alphabet. Beginning in elementary school, the children 
were required to alternate alphabets daily, which she says caused 
some chauvinistic grumbling but no confusion. 

“Once you know two languages well,” she says, “you are sel¬ 
dom disturbed by forms you encounter in other languages. And 
speaking different languages teaches you to look at things from dif¬ 
ferent points of view. I’m not the same person when I speak 
Russian in Russia as I am when I speak English in America. The 
body language is different, and I do things speaking one language 


“I wanted so much to please 
her. I guess we all did. I never 
had another teacher whose 
approval was so important to 
me, and whose disappointment 
at my occasionally poor 
performance was so devastating.” 


36 Middlebury Magazine 




that I wouldn’t do when speaking the other.” 

When Alya and her mother finally managed to join her father, 
who had worked his way to New York on a ship, she knew virtu¬ 
ally no English, but soon made it a fourth “native” language and 
embarked on a college and graduate school career that resulted in 
a B.A. from Hunter College, an M.A. in Russian from Indiana 
University, and a second M.A. from the Middlebury College 
German School. “When I first attended the German School in 
1958,” she recalls, “the fee was $350. My family could never have 
afforded to send me, but I received a scholarship of $175, which 
made it possible.” 

W HILE TEACHING AND STUDYING AT INDIANA, Alya met Bob 
Baker, then a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan, 
who was also teaching in Bloomington. Bob had just spent a frill 
academic year at Leningrad State University, a remarkably long 
Soviet visit for an American during the Cold War. When he took 
a group of Russian teachers to the Soviet Union in 1961, Alya 
jumped at the invitation to go as his assistant.This first visit to her 
family’s homeland was an overwhelming experience for her. 

In 1962 Alya and Bob married and spent part of their honey¬ 
moon in Yugoslavia—a joyous homecoming for Alya. “When I left 
Yugoslavia I was sure I would never return,” she says. “My friends 
were so glad to see me that they held our 10-year high school 
reunion three years early in my honor.” She agonized over the fate 
of her friends during the recent NATO bombing of Serbia, but has 
not attempted to contact them.“I wouldn’t know what to say,” she 
says sadly, “and getting a letter from America might cause trouble 
for them.” She sees no easy solution to the upheaval in Kosovo. 
“Both sides are to blame, not just the Serbs,” she says. “These are 
very deeply rooted hostilities.You can’t simply order people to for¬ 
get them.” 

The Bakers moved to Middlebury in 1967 when Bob became 
acting chair of the Russian department and dean of the Russian 
School. Alya, who had hoped to complete her M.A. in German 
and spend some time at home with the children, Larry and Lisa 
(Elizabeth ’87), was instantly drafted to teach a heavy load of both 
German and Russian. Since then, she has taught almost nonstop in 
the Russian department and the Russian School and served twice 
as director of the Middlebury program in Moscow, which Bob 
founded in 1977. 

Bob and Alya were largely responsible for establishing 
Middlebury’s reputation as the place to study Russian in the United 
States. The combination of new teaching materials, lucid explana¬ 
tions, finely focused drilling, and virtually unlimited office hours 
helped dispel the widespread myth that it is all but impossible for 
nonnative speakers to learn Russian well. Cynthia J. Bear ’72 says 
that after her first year of Russian with Alya, “I knew that the stan¬ 
dard of excellence had been defined.” The proof for Bear, now first 
vice president and credit director with Salomon Smith Barney, 
Inc., came during an earlier assignment in Moscow when the 
deputy chairman of the Soviet Central Bank told her, “Many peo¬ 
ple have a large vocabulary, but you speak Russian correctly.” 

Alya s language-teaching philosophy has changed little over the 
years. Despite its enormous success, her approach is difficult to 
define, perhaps because it is more personal and pragmatic than 


methodological. “The most important thing is patience,” she 
believes. “You can’t rush in the beginning, because you need a 
foundation to build on. Even little writing exercises must be care¬ 
fully corrected. First-year students cannot write compositions 
before they learn how to use the nouns and verbs.” Most impor¬ 
tant, she cautions, “beginning language courses must be taught by 
people who don’t get bored by the early stages.” 

The Bakers’ home has always been a center for Russian parties 
and picnics, an off-campus haven for students, and an inn for 
returning alumni, visiting Russians, friends and friends of friends. 
An old-world welcome instantly embraces the fortunate guests, 
who arrive early and stay late. Bob is greatly missed since his 
untimely death in 1995, but his memory is alive in the house and 
the hospitality continues. 

Alya’s Russian cuisine is deservedly famous. Such specialties as 
pirog , a pastry filled with chopped cabbage, eggs, onions, or meat; 
marinated mushrooms; and a variety of soups, salads, and zakuski 
(snacks) are in demand year-round. Holiday favorites include bliny , 
thick pancakes stuffed with any combination of caviar, mushrooms, 
sour cream, or jam for Maslenitsa , just before Lent; and paskha , a 
rich, sweet cheese dish for Easter. Alya gladly shares her recipes, 
laughing at the assumption that they are old family treasures. “My 
mother hated to cook and her menu was quite limited,” she says. 
“I learned by trial and error, practicing on Bob.” 

Though she seldom speaks Hungarian anymore, Alya puts her 
Serbian to good use. When several Bosnian refugee families settled 
in Addison County a few years ago, she plunged into helping them 
find housing,jobs, and medical care; enroll in school; and cope with 
daunting legal details and social adjustments. “It was a second full¬ 
time job,” she admits, but a solid success. The local Bosnian com¬ 
munity is thriving, and Alya’s grateful new acquaintances have 
become devoted friends. She is still on call as a trouble-shooter, 
however, and she recently received a Winooski Police Department 
arm band as a token of thanks for late-night emergency translating. 

A more substantial expression of appreciation is the Alexandra 
and Robert Baker Central/East European Endowed Scholarship 
established by an anonymous Middlebury graduate to help stu¬ 
dents from central and east Europe, including the former Soviet 
Union, attend the College. Alya is pleased by both the Baker 
Scholarship and the AATSEEL award. “I once was told that the 
rewards of teaching are long delayed,” she says. “Now I know that 
this is true.” But if a teacher’s rewards include her students’ success¬ 
es and expressions of gratitude and affection, Alya is abundantly 
rewarded almost every day. 

David Remnick, now the editor of the New Yorker magazine, 
attended the Russian School in 1987 before beginning a Moscow 
assignment for the Washington Post. He says, “I came to her with 
every bad habit and failing the instrumental case, and she turned 
me around. I wouldn’t say that by the time I arrived in Moscow 
my new Russian friends mistook me for their own, but I would say 
that they raised one eyebrow instead of two. What she really did 
was help lay a foundation so that in a year’s time I was all right. So, 
hats off to Alexandra Baker. Molodets (way to go)!” 

Judy Olinick is a coordinator for the Russian School. 


Fall 37 















BY MARK SYNNOTT '93 

CLIMBING THE BIG 

WALL 

DOCUMENTING A FIRST ASCENT ON BAFFIN ISLAND 

FOR THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 



4 





















T he Twin Otter banked a sharp turn to the right, and 
then literally dove over the top of Sail Peak s northwest face. 
As the plane tipped up on its side and began to drop, my 
view of the vertiginous granite wall was distorted by the g-force, 
which made it look ludicrously overhanging. Our team of climbers 
began cheering like kids at an amusement park. Pinned to our 
seats, we lost 5,000 feet of elevation in a matter of seconds, then 
leveled off just above the frozen surface of Stewart Lake. The ice 
had appeared silky smooth from above, but closer inspection now 
revealed it to be riddled with cracks and pressure ridges. “Should 
we abort the landing?” I tried to yell, but my voice was drowned 


in Climbing magazine: “Yosemite Valley would count as a minor 
side fjord if it were located along this coast.” In 1995, prompted by 
Fishers photo essay, I traveled to the Sam Ford Fjord and returned 
for a second time in 1996. All told, over the course of those two 
years, I spent four months climbing on the rock walls lining Sam 
Ford Fjord. During that time I established three first ascents, 
including the north face of Polar Sun Spire—a 4,700-foot spire 
that took 39 days to climb. 

Our 1998 Baffin expedition included six people: four climbers 
(myself, Jared Ogden, Greg Child, and Alex Lowe) and two cam¬ 
eramen (Gordon Wiltsie and John Catto). We arrived in Clyde 



We now had to do 
everything while attached 
to the cliff with a rope. 

Everything, from cooking to 
going to the bathroom, had to 
be coordinated and orchestrated 
with the entire group. 


John Catto taking in the view at the second bivoac on Sail Peak's upper head wall. 

out by the din of the engines and our pilot, who came on over the 
PA: “Brace yourselves, this is gonna be a rough one.”When the skis 
collided with the rock hard ice, our plane started skipping like a 
stone across the lake, sending us into a dangerous tailspin. Reacting 
quickly, our pilot, Duncan, gunned one of the engines, and we 
skidded to a stop. The six of us climbed out onto Stewart Lake, on 
the east coast of Baffin Island, where the temperature was a brac¬ 
ing -30 degrees Farenheit. For several minutes, we stood in silent 
awe of the majestic cliffs lining both sides of this remote arctic val¬ 
ley. Towering directly above us, one of the best big walls any of us 
had ever seen was basking in the amber light of an evening sunset. 
“Well boys,” said Greg, the trip leader,“I guess this will have to do.” 

Truly, we could not have picked a better place to search for 
uncharted big walls. The east coast of Baffin Island is incised by a 
series of 26 Qords, the vast majority of which have never been vis¬ 
ited by nonnative people.Varying between 30 to 70 miles in length, 
these §ords are lined, like granite corridors, with sea cliffs of stag¬ 
gering proportions. Located north of Hudson Bay and west of 
Greenland, the bulk of this sparsely populated island lies above 66 
degrees latitude (the Arctic Circle). Less than 10,000 Inuit call Baffin 
home, a population that has survived by hunting marine mammals 
in this treeless, barren wasteland for more than 4,000 years. 

The big walls reach their maximum potential in the Sam Ford 
Fjord, which contains several formations bigger than Yosemites 
3,000-foot El Capitan. As photographer and Baffin expert Eugene 
Fisher explained in a 1994 Baffin Island photo essay that appeared 

40 Middlebury Magazine 


River on May 20, still close enough to winter that the temperature 
hovered around zero. Since most of the walls rise directly from the 
ocean, the only way to safely approach these sea cliffs is to travel 
when the ocean is still locked beneath a six-foot-thick ice sheet. 
Consequently, climbers must arrive in May and be finished by early 
July when the ice finally breaks up. Breakup is a dangerous time of 
year, when pack ice makes the fjords impassable by skidoo or boat. 

As was their custom, our outfitters, the Illuaq family, invited us 
to their home to have dinner on our first night in town. In their 
two-story wooden house on the outskirts of Clyde River (pop. 
250), Beverly prepared a traditional Inuit meal of arctic char and 
polar bear. Jushua, her husband and the head guide, sat back smok¬ 
ing his hand-rolled cigarettes, looking deadly serious one moment 
and then giggling uncontrollably the next. He and a few of his fel¬ 
low guides, an uncle and two cousins, clucked away in their native 
Inuktitut language. We never knew exactly what they were talking 
about, but they kept looking us over, and then busting up laugh¬ 
ing. Even if it was at our expense, we couldn’t help but get caught 
up in their good humor. 

The plan was to have Jushua and a few of his men drag us and 
our gear the 70 miles into the Stewart Valley aboard giant sleds 
called komatiks. The flat, frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean is a 
veritable highway for the Inuit and their snowmobiles for eight 
months out of the year, so we did not anticipate any great hin¬ 
drances, other than bundling up against the stinging cold. 

In ideal conditions, you should be able to snowmobile into 
Stewart Valley in two long days. Unfortunately, it stormed nearly 
constantly after the day we arrived. Nine days after leaving Clyde 

Photography by Mark Synnott 




















■ 

















Rations such as food and fuel 
have to be calculated with 
mathematical precision, and 
no item, no matter how small, 
can be overlooked. 

How many calories will we 
need per day? 

How much fuel will it take to melt 
snow into drinking water? 



Because the media was involved, they decided to haul "the kitchen sink"—that meant 23 
haul bags, each one holding between 60 and 80 pounds. 

River by snowmobile, we arrived at the base of our objective, thor¬ 
oughly frozen and road worn from the hard trip. Only a few hours 
after bidding good-bye to our Inuit friends and pitching our tents, 
we loaded up for our first carry to the base of the wall. It was 
approximately 1,500 feet of steep post-holing in knee-deep snow, 
which was no easy task under the 80-pound haul bags. 

We spent the next week making three and four carries a day. 
Because of the media involvement in our climb, we decided to give 
ourselves a wide measure of security by hauling what climbers 


refer to as “the kitchen sink.” We had 23 haul bags, each holding 
between 60 and 80 pounds. They contained an untold fortune in 
camera gear, hundreds of rolls of film, huge bags of beef jerky, 
freeze-dried dinners, hundreds of cliff bars, sleeping bags, bivi sacks, 
portaledges (hanging bat tents that clip to the wall and sleep two), 
a VHF radio, a notebook computer, solar panels, and nearly 2,000 
feet of rope. The rock in Baffin Island, a granitic gneiss, is quite 
young, which means it hasn’t had a lot of time to get split up by 
cracks. Normally, these lines of weakness are the routes that 
climbers seek out. Only in cracks, preferably between 1 /8 and 4 
inches wide, can climbers find placements for pitons, wired stop¬ 
pers, and camming devices—the tools of the trade. 

The first 1,700 feet of the wall was somewhat low angle and 
broken. Above this unaesthetic section of the route, the face was 
split by an enormous ledge, several football fields wide. Our plan 
was to climb up to this ledge, laying static ropes behind us a's we 
went. We would then use these ropes to haul our bags up to our 
first camp. We were lucky in that the ledge contained several large 
snow patches we could use to melt drinking water. This meant we 
could avoid hauling this significant weight (approximately eight 
pounds per gallon) of water bottles from the bottom. 

Thorough logistical planning is an essential requirement for 
any climbing expedition heading to a remote, alpine environment. 
Rations such as food and fuel have to be calculated with mathe¬ 
matical precision, and no item, no matter how small, can be over¬ 
looked. How many calories will we need per day? How much fuel 
will it take to melt snow into drinking water? Expeditions have to 
learn the ropes by a frustrating process of trial and error. To com¬ 
pound the problem, we knew that to document the entire ascent 
with stills and video, we would have to climb the wall once for real, 
and then again for the cameras. 

We lived on the big ledge, 1,700 feet up the wall, for about 10 
days before we were finally ready to move up our camp. It took us 
about 24 hours to haul our three-ring circus another 1,000 feet 
vertically. The hauling was brutally hard work, and it chafed my 
hips and legs raw under my harness. In keeping with our capsule- 
style ascent, our plan was to continue fixing pitches above the 
hanging camp, until we felt within striking distance of the top. 

Unlike ledge camp, where we had been able to walk around 
completely unroped, we now had to do everything while attached 
to the cliff with a rope. Everything, from cooking to going to the 
bathroom, had to be coordinated and orchestrated with the entire 
group. Our system required that someone was always on lead. Four 
climbers could be split into two groups, and with 24 hours of day¬ 
light, there was no reason not to be constantly pushing the route 
forward. This also left time for half the group to work on filming, 
while the others climbed ahead. A big question throughout our 
climb was whether the crack would ever peter out. Scoping this 
line from below with binoculars, it had been impossible to tell 
whether our crack system continued above the roof we were now 
sleeping under. You could just barely make out a faint ripple in the 
rock, but it could easily have been a water streak, some lichen, or 
even a vein of quartz or calcite. It was a gamble, because the route 
was leading us into the middle of the blankest headwall I’d ever 
seen. If the crack suddenly ended, we would be forced to drill bolts 
(a hateful task) or possibly bail. 


42 Mid dlebury Magazine 
























Hanging by a thread is a way of life for climbers like Synnott. 

Somehow our dreams had been answered, because the tiny fis¬ 
sure in the rock, often no more than 1/16 inch thick, just kept 
going and going. It was hard to get into a rhythm with our climb¬ 
ing because our conflicting schedules and agendas created a hodge¬ 
podge of people doing what they could when they felt like it. The 
24 hours of daylight allowed us to split into two climbing teams so 
someone was always up on the sharp end, pushing the route ahead. 
It also meant that no one was getting enough sleep, and after 
a week of listening to water dripping on the rain fly of the por- 
taledge, we were all feeling pretty frazzled. Jared and I were push¬ 
ing the route ahead one day, planning to fix two lines and return 
to camp, when we noticed that the rim of the wall was only about 
300 feet overhead. We hadn’t been able to see the top for a while, 
and while we knew we were close, we hadn’t realized how close. 

“What do you think?” Jared asked, with a conniving grin on 
his face. “Should we go for it?” We had made a plan to return to 
the wall camp one more time before going for the top, and the 
other guys would definitely be bummed it we led their pitches. 
Still, there was the top, right above us, beckoning. 


I called down to wall camp and learned, in no uncertain terms, 
that we were expected to wait because there was more filming to 
do. In contrast to all of our previous climbs, which we had done 
for fun, this was indeed a paying job. There were strings attached, 
and one of them was tugging on us now. Reluctantly, we huddled 
up on a small shady ledge to wait for the rest of the team. We knew 
it would be a while before they suited up and jumared the 900 feet 
of free hanging static line to join us. 

Reaching the summit of a big wall climb can be a lot different 
than making the summit of a big snowy peak. Although this 
mountain did have a fairly distinct high point, it did not represent 
to us the pinnacle of our ascent. The wall itself had been far more 
dramatic and challenging than this low angle talus field. It was a 
relief to know, though, that we had succeeded, not only in climb¬ 
ing the wall, but in capturing the experience on film and video. 
The climb resulted in a January 1999 article in National Geographic 
and a show on the PBS National Geographic Explorer Series. 

Mark Synnott ’93 is a freelance photojonrnalist and professional climber. 
A contributing editor to Climbing Magazine, lie’s a member of the North 
Face Climbing Team and lines in Jackson, N.H., with his wife and son. 













































CALEN DAR 



NYC December 8, Holiday Reception 


Middlebury November 12-13, Bicentennial Symposium: 
Commitment to Our World 

Middlebury November 13, Concert Series: Music From China 

Chicago November 13, Family Day at Kohls Children Museum 

Middlebury November 19, Midd Chamber Soloists: 

20th Century Americans In Paris 

Chicago November 23, NESCAC Happy Hour 

France November 20-28, Football Reunion 

DECEMBER 1999 

Boston December 1, Holiday Reception, State Street Bank 


Middlebury December 9-11, Theatre Production:The Rover 

JANUARY 2000 

Middlebury January 15, Concert Series: The Vermeer Quartet 

Middlebury January 15, Alumna Film Screening: 
Gretchen Widmer ’88, All the Rage 

Middlebury January 18- April 16, Museum Exhibition: 
Fifty Years: Faculty Art at Middlebury 

Middlebury January 20-22, Theatre Production: Blue Forest 

Middlebury January 22, Alumnus Film Screening: 

Rick Shane ’69, Always Outnumbered 


46 Middlebury Magazine 


Photograph by Bob H a n d e l m a n 







CHAPTER NEWS 


SPOTLIGHT ON 

THE NEW YORK CHAPTER 


a 


I 

JLah 


r’s Snowing,” proclaimed a large billboard in front 
of the Brooklyn Museum on a hot day last June. 

Knd indeed it was—in over 100 Impressionist paint¬ 
ings on loan from all over the world for a spectacular 
exhibition, “Impressionists in Winter: Effets de Neige.” 
The exhibition drew over 70 participants from the New 
York area for a special visit to the museum and the 
neighboring Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. 

Kirsten Powell, the Christian A. Johnson Professor ol 
Art, opened the morning with a slide talk to prepare vis¬ 
itors for the exhibition. With parallels to Robert Frosts 
sense of snow, she sketched some of the reasons why the 
French Impressionists saw the depiction of the snowy 
landscape as the ultimate artistic challenge. Following 
Professor Powell’s introduction, the group took in the 
exhibition at its leisure, observing how the Impressionists 
learned to see color in shadows and abstract forms in 
snow-covered fields. With stunning paintings like 
Monets ice floes and snow-covered haystacks, memories 
of Middlebury winters merged with images of 19th- 
century France. 

Battling a mild case of climate shock, the group 
moved to the lush Brooklyn Botanical Gardens after 
lunch, enjoying the brilliant June day and summers 
return. Special thanks to Briana Miller ’96 and Mary 
Robertson ’94 who organized this wonderful event. For 
more information about upcoming New York City 
chapter organization, attending events, contact Mary at 
718-488-8410; mhrobertson@yahoo.com 



LACROSSE AT 8,000 FEET 

The dream of sending a Middlebury alumni lacrosse team to the Vail Lacrosse Shootout 
became a reality when 35 former Middlebury players entered the master’s division for the 
first time in 1997. Players from the classes of '60, '10, and '80 were reunited to field a 
competitive, all-alumni team that has returned in 1997, 1998 and 1999for eight days 
of lacrosse at eight thousand feet. Interested lacrosse alums should check out the club's 
Web site at http://uninv.middleburylacrosse.oig to learn more about the alumni team or 
contact Bob Sideli '77 at info@middleburylacrosse.org. 


AT HOME AGAIN 
IN 

MIDDLEBURY 


“T A /lien I graduated, I called the 
V V alumni office and said, ‘Take 
my name off the mailing list.’ I had 
had a falling out with one of our 
deans and I didn’t even want to asso¬ 
ciate with Middlebury. Well, 10 years 
went by and my only contact with 
Middlebury was some visits to see 
my old college roommate, but I kept 
feeling that something was missing from my life. I finally 
realized the spat that I had with the College might have been 
important when I was a 21-year-old, but 10 years later, it just 
didn’t seem as important. It was back in 1985 that I called the 
alumni office and asked them to put my name back on the 
mailing list. 

The first Middlebury Magazine I received had an ad in it 
for alumni admissions volunteers, so I called their office and 
suddenly I was doing college fairs in Southern California. I 
began talking with high school kids and their parents at these 
fairs and it really helped me to fall in love with the College 
all over again. Then I came back for my 10th reunion in ’86 
and had a great time — that really cemented my relationship 
with Middlebury. Before I knew it, I got to know a number 
of people on staff, a bunch of students, especially those who 
I had interviewed in the alumni admissions process, and every 
time I headed back to the Champlain Valley, it was like coming 
home again. 

Five years ago, my wife Judi and I had come back so many 
times that we really felt like part of the Midd family. We knew 
for many years that California did not offer the quality of life 
we were looking for, so we made a five-year plan to move to 
Middlebury. I’m a tax accountant, and technology has enabled 
my business to move with us. So here it is 1999, we moved 
into our house just a few miles from campus, and our plan is 
basically complete. 

The College is a great place to visit and to just be around, 
but it’s the kids who we feel closest to. The connections with 
them are so important — they’re just great kids — they are the 
life blood of this place.” — Kim Loewer ’76 




Middlebur y_ 

The Bicentennial Campaign 


1 800*2000 


Fall 47 


Midd Connection 







































LASS NOTES 


DIRECTORS OF THE MIDDLEBURY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 


Richard G. Silton 80, President * Becky E. Casde ’91,Vice President # Paula Carr Cummings ’82, President, 
Ex Officio * Jessica N. Angell ’96, President, Boston Chaper * Jason Bacon ’84, Co-president, London Chapter 

* Sara Bremner Barry ’91, Communications * Richard N. Brown ’88, Co-president, Philadelphia Chapter * 
James R. Calise ’88, President, Atlanta Chapter * Jill Cowperthwaite ’76, President, Denver Chapter * Suzanne 

K. Daley ’96, Co-president, Chicago Chapter # Jean Rau Dawes ’61, Admissions # Denver G. Edwards ’88, 
Career Services # Jenna Ermold ’95, President, Northern Vermont Chapter * Wendell C. Fleming ’78, 
Nominating Committee * Simon R. Gerlin ’80, Communications # Scott N. Codes ’94, Co-president, 
Washington, D.C. Chapter * Kirtley M. Horton ’95, Co-president, London Chapter # Rawson Hubbell ’85, 
Nominating Committee * Arianne Faber Kolb ’88, President, San Francisco Chapter * Lynn Holley Krugman 
’91, Co-president, Baltimore Chapter * Karen L. Lewis ’97, Co-president, Baltimore Chapter # Kim P. Loewer 
’76, Admissions * Katherine W. Long ’91, Co-president, New York Chapter * Kelly A. Meagher ’91, President, 
Seattle Chapter ♦ Michelle Marie Millin ’88, Career Services ♦ Julie Moriarty ’95, Co-president, Chicago 
Chapter # Nicholas P. Nebolsine ’94, Co-president, Washington, DC, Chapter # Robert J. North ’66, At large 

* Erica R. Omundsen ’94, Co-president, Hartford Chapter # Stephen D. Ramos ’76, Co-president, 
Philadelphia Chapter # Dorothy Hart Rand ’54, Career Services * Mary H. Robertson ’94, Co-president, 

New York Chapter # Jean B. Seeler ’60, Class Secretaries # Cynthia L. Strong ’81, Communications # Tamara 

L. Taylor ’90, President, Los Angeles/Orange County Chapter # Christopher J. Waddell ’91, Communications * 
Rich Wagman ’84, Co-president, Baltimore Chapter * Peter E.Wiemeyer ’91, Co-president, Hartford Chapter 
Ex Officio: F. Robert Huth,Vice President for Administration and Treasurer # Elizabeth Hackett Robinson ’84, 
Director of Alumni and Parent Programs ♦ Hugh W. Marlow ’57, Executive Secretary of the Alumni 
Association * James R. Ralph, Jr. ’82, Faculty Representative * Beth Karnes, Graduate Alumni * Ruth Henry, 
Director, Annual Giving 



Class Secretary: Dr. Ward Oliver, 

35 North Grand St., Cobleskill, NY 
12043. 


We are indebted to Gertrude Knight Cleverdon 
’35 for sending news of our Evelyn Plumley 
Adams. Evelyn and Gertrude are both residents of 
Rivermead in Peterborough, NH. As you will 
recall, Evelyn was well known for a remarkable col¬ 
lection of trilliums at her Wellesley, MA, home. 
When she retired to Rivermead a few years ago, 
her entire collection was moved to the Garden in 
the Woods in Framingham, MA, where it could be 
preserved. A group of Rivermead residents recently 
made a special trip down to see the trilliums. 
Gertrude reports that, although Evelyn did not 
attempt to make the trip herself, she was very 
pleased for her friends to see the flowers. # We 
regret to report the death of Esther Sargent 
Urquhart on March 3. Her sister, the late Aroline 
H. Sargent, was a member of the Class of 1922. We 
send the condolences of the class to all of Esther’s 
family, including granddaughter Lindsay Putnam 
’80. A memorial appeared in the summer issue. 



Class Secretary: Mrs.J.D. Coombs 
(Miriam Sweet), 13 Highland St., 
Concord, MA 01142 (phone 918/369- 
5595). 


Fall greetings.You will have read the memorial to 
our classmate, Gordon Wiley, in the summer issue 
of this magazine. The news came to me as I was 
about to send 93rd birthday wishes to him. Fall 
seems just the right time to remember Gordon. We 
first met him in September ’24, as one of the 1928 
prospective freshman football candidates. He, along 
with Ron Furbush, George Hinman, Carleton 
Simmons, and Nap Blanchette, were all deter¬ 
mined to play, even if the squad had no regular 
playing field and their training involved running 
around the campus. They made it. They had mosdy 
prep school opponents that first year and all of 
them were playing when Gordon became the cap¬ 
tain of Midd varsity during our junior year. 
Gordon’s quiet leadership was also recognized 
when he was chosen to represent his fraternity in 
Dalta Tau, an organization promoting athletics, 
planning activities, and acting as hosts for visiting 
teams. As one classmate said, “I remember nothing 


but nice things about Gordon.” We did not hear 
from him often after college, but Elizabeth 
Stoughton Westfall and her husband were fortu¬ 
nate to have Gordon and his wife and family as 
church friends in Delmar, NY. We send our sympa¬ 
thy to his family: Mary Lou ’51, Robert ’55,James 
’64, and Jane. * Elizabeth Stoughton Westfall is 
very content at Franciscan Manor, Beaver Falls, PA 
15010. She is near her daughter and family. She 
avoids the early morning breakfast schedule by get¬ 
ting her own, but she enjoys the fellowship that 
lunch and dinner provide. Available transportation 
allows her the independence to do shopping and 
banking. Lib’s telephone number is 813-497-1409 
and her room number is 205. Call her! * Ruth 
Simmons Dinkel and her family have a unique 
birthday celebration scheme. They find a day when 
they can all be together and celebrate all their 
birthdays at once. Though she doesn’t call attention 
to her own, we know her secret. She acknowledges 
that her current reading material would not meet 
“Davy’s” American lit standards. # We were not 
sure that Storrs Lee would come back to Maine 
after spending the winter in Hawaii, but he did 
come back in April. He continues to garden, but 
claims that this year’s effort is not up to standard. * 
Helen Revere Hatch will be involved not only 
with symphony this season, but also with Venice 
Opera (connected with Sarasota Opera). After that 
100-cream-puff story, I had to ask about possible 
new culinary creations. Would you believe, just 
right for fall, she has added cherry tomatoes, stuffed 
with cheese and a bit of brandy? She credits her 
teacher who has Parker House and Fannie Farmer 
roots with inspiring her. # Tib Moody Rice 
sends greetings from her Dartmouth Court apart¬ 
ment in Bedford, MA.Visits to her daughter in RI 
are the extent of her travels these days. * Here in 
Concord, we’re celebrating Concord’s Ephraim 
Bull’s sowing of the Concord grape 150 years ago 
and dentist Thomas Welch’s pasteurization of grape 
juice 20 years later. Welch’s headquarters, now in 
Concord, have given access to all the old ads, even 
to “Howdy Doody.”The Concord Museum exhibit 
will continue to November, giving another “leaf 
peeping” Concord attraction. I’ve learned not to 
begin my calls to you with the annoying “How are 
you today?”You’re all so smart and wary that I’m at 
risk of hang-ups. Proud of you. Mimi 


STAY IN TOUCH WITH 
MIDDLEBURY! 


If no class secretary is listed for your 
class, just send your news directly to the 
Alumni Editor, Middlebury Magazine, 
Middlebury College, Meeker House, 
Middlebury, VT 05753. 


■ 

E 

1 

Find a friend through our alumni 
directory http://www. 

digitalfrontier.com/ 
middalum/index. html 


Class Secretary: Dr. Raymond J. 
Saulnier, 230 Heron Point, Chestertown, 
MD 21620-1616. 

It was a sentimental and very pleasant journey to 
go back to Middlebury for the 70th Reunion of 
our 1929 class. There were four of us to represent 
the class— Grace Cheney Greene, Eula Cargill 
Kelley, Ruth Rogers Lambert, and myself—and 
we were handsomely entertained by the College. 
Housed conveniently and comfortably in Gifford 
(it wasn’t there in 1925!), we had a festive Saturday 
lunch at 3 South Street, with gifts for each of us 
and a class photo on the lawn. Our dinner was in 
the president’s dining room in Proctor Hall. Then 
we had front seats at the Mead Chapel convocation 
of reunion classes. We were last to march in, under 
a large 1929 banner, with loud cheers and some 
gasps of surprise at our advanced age. There were 
many occasions to visit among ourselves and with 
members of other classes. The only regret is that so 
many of our class could not be there, but there will 
be an opportunity to correct that next year when 
the College celebrates its 200th birthday. Let’s plan 
to be there. # On a sad note, as mentioned in the 
last column, I must report the recent death of 
Morris T. “Morrie” Johnson in Batavia, NY, his 
long-time home, after a long and notably construc¬ 
tive career as a farmer, a leader in the development 
of farm and community financing agencies, and a 
great force for good in his community. I believe 
Morrie had hoped until recently to attend the 70th 
Reunion. # You will have also seen a memorial 
for Sigrid Manty Doubleday in the summer 
issue. We send the condolences of the class to her 
daughter, Barbara M. Doubleday ’60. 

Class Secretaries: Mrs. Spencer E. 
Norton (Ellen Kellogg), 21 S. Water St., 
Vergennes, VT 05491; and Mr. Walton T. 
Crocker, Ocean View, #218, 52 
Falmouth Rd., Falmouth, ME 04105. 

We are sorry to report that Walt Crocker, whose 
90th birthday celebration was reported in the sum¬ 
mer issue, recently took a fall and fractured his hip. 
He is doing as well as can be expected in assisted 
living and would love to hear from friends at the 
address above. We are hopeful that E. Parker 
Calvert (6251 Old Dominion Dr.. #225, McLean, 




IRECTORY 


EMAIL 


Middlebury Magazine 






































VA 22101) will lend us a hand with reporting class 
notes for our column. * Congratulations are in 
order to several more classmates who have celebrat¬ 
ed their 90th birthdays. The list now includes 
Parker Calvert, Marshall Montgomery, Phil 
Bates, Phil Brewer, Ken MacClelland, and 
Dick Fear. * Mary Stolte Toomey writes that 
she is “back on the golf course again, but ‘the form 
ain’t what it uster be.’ Does anyone else have trou¬ 
ble keeping flower beds pristine? I look forward to 
weekly bridge when Jo Knox Divoll ’35 returns 
from Florida.” # We regret to report the death of 
Frances Everett Hanchett on September 26, 
1998. Her husband, John, died less than three 
months later. We send the condolences of the class 
to her family, especially son John Hanchett in 
Fairbanks, AK. 

Class Secretaries: Volunteers are needed 
to help with news gathering for the Class 
of 1932. Please address inquiries to Dotty 
McCarty, Alumni Editor, Middlebury 
Magazine, Meeker House, Middlebur)' College, 
Middlebury, VT 05753. 



With great sadness, we must report the death of 
Marion Jones Munford. Cancer claimed her on 
July 20,1999, at home on South Street with her 
family Ever a humble person, Marion succeeded in 
doing a great deal to help the needy, simply by per¬ 
sisting in her quiet way. We convey our condo¬ 
lences to her loved ones, especially her husband, 
Howard ’34, and their children, Martha Munford 
Hillemann 79 and David Munford 72. A memori¬ 
al appears elsewhere in this issue, but we would like 
to reprint excerpts from the citation read at the 
presentation of her honorary degree in 1994: 
“Marion Munford has been a community volun¬ 
teer and leader in Addison County for decades. 
After graduating from Middlebury College, she 
taught English, history, and biology, and embarked 
on a long career in library work at Dartmouth, 
Harvard, Boston City Hospital, the Bread Loaf 
School of English, and Porter Hospital in 
Middlebury. Starting in 1960, she directed and 
taught laboratory sections in Middlebury College’s 
biology department for several years and later 
served as codirector of a program designed to bring 
African American students to the campus for a spe¬ 
cial summer academic program in the wake of the 
assassination of Martin Luther King. Among the 
community programs she has helped to initiate, 
run, or support in recent years have been the 
Christmas Shop, which has provided clothing and 
toys for more than 600 Addison County children; 
the Clothing Room, a program she established to 
provide clean clothing to hundreds of low income 
families in the area; the John Graham Shelter, a 
homeless shelter inVergennes; and Volunteers for 
Community Action, a group which created the first 
modern-day food shelf in the ’60s which is still 
alive and strong.” Her presence in Middlebury will 
be sorely missed, but long remembered. 


33 


Elmwood Ln. 
5761). 


Class Secretary: Mrs. Edward W Weeks 
(Mar)> Duryee), P.O. Box 151, 
Ashburnham, MA 01430, and Mrs. W. 
Dale Brown (Miriam Barber), 2830 
Mount Dora, FL 32757 (352/735- 


Catawba College has bestowed its highest honor 
upon Mary Omwake Dearborn. On May 12 
she received the Adrian L. Shuford Award for 
1 )istinguished Service from the president of 


Catawba College in Hickory, NC.The award is 
given annually to the individual who has played an 
outstanding role in supporting the college and its 
programs through time, talent, and resources. 
Daughter of the 15th president of Catawba, Mary 
taught French and physical education there from 
1933 to 1940 and worked in the alumni office 
from 1968 to 1977. Mary actively supports theater 
and music events on the campus and is also active 
in the United Church of Christ. Her late husband, 
Donald Dearborn, served Catawba as professor and 
president of the college. A resident of Salisbury, 
Mary has three children and five grandchildren. # 
From Ralph C. Whitney: “I will be 92 on 
November 29, 1999. Taught in various Vermont 
and New York schools, all sciences, until retirement 
at 65 years. Seven years during World War II in 
machine shop. So be it!” # Mary Omwake 
Dearborn, Ruth Nodding Hopkins, and Mary 
Duryee Weeks had lunch with Doris Hiller Lynch 
’35 at her Carol Woods Retirement Home in 
Chapel Hill, NC last April. # Sympathy is extend¬ 
ed to classmate Fenwick Buffum in the loss of his 
beloved wife, Mildred. She and “Buff” attended 
many class reunions. Following his early retirement 
in 1970, he realized a boyhood dream. Together 
they owned the Mil-Fen Farm in Maurertown,VA, 
raising (and occasionally racing) thoroughbred race 
horses. Buff has been visiting their daughters and 
families, as he considers possible life in a retire¬ 
ment-home setting. 

Class Secretaries: Mrs. Andrew W. Reid 
(Eleanor Orde), 25 Walhowdon Way, 
Lebanon, NH 03766; and James A. 
Fechheimer, 26 Salem Way, Glen Head, 

NY 11545. 



When 1 (Eleanor) and my husband, Andrew W. 
Reid, came to our 50th Middlebury Reunion in 
1984, we stayed at the Middlebury Inn. After my 
husband’s death, I returned for my 60th Reunion 
and again stayed at the Inn. But for the very special 
65th Reunion of our class, 1 wanted to stay at the 
College, perhaps to bring back memories. I was 
amazed at the diversity of the College program and 
the skill with which everything was planned and 
executed. Certainly the highlight of the weekend 
was the alumni convocation Saturday morning in 
Mead Chapel when the classes gathered. James 
Fechheimer and I, as class secretaries of the hon¬ 
ored 65th returning class led our classmates down 
the center aisle to row two, amid the clapping and 
tapping of Gamaliel Painter’s canes. I found this 
very moving and wished all our class members 
could have been present. Luncheon was served at 
President and Mrs. McCardell’s home, followed by 
our class picture taking. In the evening, our class 
dinner at Proctor—where we were entertained by 
a delightful group of student vocalists—brought a 
fine day to an end. An appropriate farewell was the 
Sunday service at Mead Chapel. * On a sad note, 
we have received notice of the deaths of three class¬ 
mates: former class secretary Marion Day Ellison 
(March 28), Evald B. Olson (February 5), and 
Louis G. Caiazza (no date available).We send the 
condolences of the class to their families. 

Memorials appeared in the summer issue for 
Marion and Evald. 


35 


Class Secretaries: Miss Avis E. Fischer, 
Wood River Vgc., #/ 102, 3200 
Bensalem Bind., Bcnsalem, PA 19020; 
and Alma Davis Struble (Mrs. Robert), 
1977 Marlboro Rd., Kennett Square, PA 19348. 


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No pressure, no timetable, 
just valuable information 
for your future. 


Fall 49 


Midd Connection 

































Alma Davis Struble says she has “had great fun 
writing my autobiography for the younger genera¬ 
tions in the family, recalling old friends, rethinking 
past experiences, re-seeing in my imagination many 
of the places I visited around the world. I recom¬ 
mend this activity to all who have time—and that 
should be most of us at this stage of our lives. I 
hope someday to put more life in it by telling it on 
tape. If you don’t know where to start, how about 
the day you were born? You’ll find it easy once you 
put pen to paper. And use some photographs to 
add interest.” * Doris Tucker Kniskern is still 
living in her own home, but not driving any more. 
“My children and grandchildren keep me happy. 
Retired from the public library (part time) at 84, 
when I broke my hip.” * Natalie Dunsmoor 
writes: “I am so thankful that I have good eyesight, 

I can hear, I can write (no computers in my life), I 
can walk, I can dance, I can sing, I can drive my 
car, I can manage living alone in my family home¬ 
stead—but I forget my next door neighbor’s name 
every once in awhile. I continue to be involved 
with many church groups in Waterbury and I try to 
attend all state and national church celebrations.” * 
Carroll and Virginia Easier Wilson entertain fre- 
quendy and often “play silly games.” Ginny is a vol¬ 
unteer in the library of their retirement community 
in Sarasota. At a tea recently they raised $7,000 in 
contributions, “the most ever.” Every Friday the 
Wilsons attend vespers, where Carroll sings in the 
men’s chorus. * Louise Fleig Newman writes 
that eruptions and earthquakes she experienced in 
Anchorage were nothing compared with the May 
tornado in Oklahoma. Happier news was her 
birthday celebration with most of their three gen¬ 
erations together to shop, dine out, go to church, 
and make plans for our 65th Reunion at Midd. 
When she learned that Carroll and Ginny Easier 
Wilson were planning a summer trip on the QE 
II, she remembered her own first ocean voyage to 
Germany in 1929: “That ocean voyage was so spe¬ 
cial to have at age 16!” Louise is a volunteer in a 
hospital shop that earned $25,000 last year. She has 
returned to TX to visit travel-agent-daughter Suzie 
and to see old friends. One trip to TX included a 
luncheon to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 
Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, a project in which her 
husband, Bud Newman ’33, had been involved. * 
Mundy Allen Keppler reports from the West 
Coast that she indulges herself with Meals on 
Wheels and a cleaning woman. Daughter Carol, 
“supreme caretaker,” indulges her further for “shop¬ 
ping, edible goodies, etc.—and the important part 
of the etc. is chocolate—underlined, exclamation 
point.” Most of us would agree with her that “the 
most difficult part of change is not driving.” # 

After a bout with intolerance for wheat, Gertrude 
Knight Cleverdon writes: “I have become a read¬ 
er of labels.” Good advice for all of us! She has 
helped to develop many activities in her retirement 
community, including a sugaring-off party and visits 
to Monadnock music programs and the 
Peterborough Players. Gertrude still drives, so she is 
the envy of her friends. She was celebrating July 4 
in WI, with about 10 days of fun with relatives 
from CA and AK. # Jessie Gibson Prouty orga¬ 
nized a get-together for all her family, including 
some members from CO and Philadelphia, on the 
beach at Harwichport.They had two cottages and a 
terrific time: “It was just wonderful.” # A year ago, 
Betty Bryan Sheldon moved to a retirement 
community (207 Reed’s Landing, Springfield, MA 
01109), where she volunteers in the assisted living 
and memory impaired areas. In spring she and a 
son and daughter enjoyed a trip to Scodand.They 


I 

had seven out of nine beautiful days, which she 
thinks must be “some kind of record.” In June, she 
had “a good gabfest with Natt ’34 and Jo Knox 
Divoll. Mavis “Joney”Jones Little ’36 visited the 
same day. * Vera Brooks Knapp writes: “Quality 
time with family and friends is a high priority 
Thoroughly enjoy the holidays spent with son 
Gary and his wife, Paula, in their lovely new home 
in Colchester, within easy walking distance of 
beautiful Lake Champlain. Granddaughter Carrie is 
in banking in Boston. Granddaughter Christy and 
her husband have moved to San Diego.” * We 
regret to report the death of Maijorie McCann 
Hayne on February 15. In college she was active 
in sports and was a member of both the Press Club 
and Wig and Pen. She was on the Dean’s List her 
freshman year. To all her family, the class sends 
heartfelt condolences. A memorial appeared in the 
summer issue. 

Class Secretaries: Mrs. M. W. Herrington 
(Ret Hanson), P.O. Box 390, Saranac 
Lake, NY 12983; and Dr. Angus M. 

Brooks, Odd Fellows Home, 200 
Pleasant St., #273, Concord, NH 03301. 

Ray and Harmony Buell Cobb recendy 
returned from a cruise on the Baltic Sea. Using 
their ship as a hotel, they went ashore at nine 
places, including Stockholm, St. Petersburg, and 
Copenhagen. Ray had injured himself in a fall, so 
they were unsure until the last minute whether 
they would be able to take the trip. # Last spring, 

Agnes Harris Taylor went to FL, where she plays 
golf on a beautiful 18-hole course. * In May, 

Barbara Warner Barry had an operation due to a 
fall which damaged her spleen. Otherwise, she has 
managed to keep quite well, living in her big house 
alone. # Anna Mayo is managing quite well, 
despite her eye problems. She is still able to drive 
locally. # Janet Howe Adams lias recovered well 
from a recent back operation, although husband 
Charles is now confined to a wheelchair due to a 
stroke. The good news is that daughter Susan is 
moving from TX back to their mid-Atlantic area. 

Son Peter and daughter Lynne already live nearby. 

# Mavis Jones Little recently spent several days 
visiting Betty Bryan Sheldon in an elegant 
retirement home in Springfield, MA. While there, 
she heard of our July deadline for class notes and 
very kindly sent me a note. She and Betty had 
lunch with Div ’34 and Jo Knox Divoll ’35. * 

Louise Hutchinson spent the summer in 
Bradford,VT, returning in the fall to her retirement 
home at Heritage Heights in Concord, NH, where 
she often talks with Angus Brooks and Frances 
Wilkinson Russ. She also corresponds with 
Josephine Anderson Michaud and Clarice 
Gilpin Seymour. * Katie and Angus Brooks 
are enjoying their third-floor view of residential 
Concord from the Odd Fellows Home.They take 
their meals in a large dining room with others on 
an independent living program. They continue to 
use their car for errands into Concord; Angus still 
uses his five-speed bicycle for exercise and pleasure. 

He and Katie remember his bicycle tours into VT, 
including a 1975 trip when he pedaled from 
Middlebury up to Bread Loaf and coasted down 
into Hancock. Katie and Angus enjoyed a late 
spring visit from Max and Ret Hanson 
Herrington, who had been visiting daughter 
Nancy near Boston. The four joined Alfred and 
Frances Wilkinson Russ for lunch in town, 
where they enjoyed good food and good talk. Ret 
and Max told about a bicycle trip for the benefit of 



WHAT THEY'D DO 
DIFFERENTLY IF THEY 
COULD 

"DO IT ALL AGAIN...." 



“Nothing, if I started again as it was in 
1931.1 have always thought that I was 
in a dream world my four years at 
Middlebury—I didn’t know what was 
happening in the country or the world. 
There were no cars on campus, no 
problems with drugs—it was hard work 
but fun to learn, and I made so many 
good friends! 

—Doris Tucker Kniskern ’35 
COBLESKILL, NY 

“Work to get straight As from Steve 
Freeman! I would have taken some 
courses in art, preferably watercolor. 

I regret not having a course with Dr. 
Cook.” 

—Mary StolteToomey ’31 
Grafton, VT 

“I would not have picked up whooping 
cough, which quarantined me from 
shortly after Christmas until shortly 
before Easter. It surely put a crimp on 
my first year.” 

—Alma Davis Struble ’35 
Kennett Square, PA 

“The tight organization, discipline, and 
deans made no allowances for us to do 
anything differently. I guess it didn’t 
hurt. We survived the Depression and 
World War II.” 

—Roxana Lewis Blackmore ’36 
Schenectady, NY 

“I would have taken four years of 
French instead of two—I would have 
skied instead of snowshoed for more 
fun in the snow. At age 86,1 am going 
to try cross-country skiing! I would 
have tried harder to make the college 
choir; I would take organ lessons—I 
have always washed that I could play the 
organ. 

—Natalie H. Dunsmoor ’35 
Waterbury; CT 


50 Middlebury Magazine 

























the American Lung Assoc, taken by their son, Bill, 
and grandson Kelly from Seattle to Washington, 

DC, in summer 1998. Kelly, who has an asthmatic 
condition, made the trip fine.This summer, Kelly 
and his brother, Cory, did a bicycle trip from 
Sunday River, near the NH border, up to 
Rockland, ME.This trip benefited the Maine 
chapter of the American Lung Assoc. They have 
also hiked the length of the Long Trail inVT. Ret 
and Max are justifiably proud of their achievements 
for a good cause. # Anne and Dick Chase are 
happy to stay close to home, convinced by their 
many travels that Westmoreland, NH, is hard to 
beat. Their flower and vegetable gardens give plea¬ 
sure, with last years raspberry patch yielding 387 
pints! Dick was singing baritone for 28 concerts 
this summer with the Westmoreland Town Band. 
Recently the Kiwanis Club honored his 51 years of 
perfect attendance. Last winter he enjoyed skiing in 
CO with his son, who works at the Breckenridge 
ski area. Dick and Anne also enjoyed their grand¬ 
son s performance at the Univ. of CO, Boulder, 
when he played the lead in Lend Me a Tenor. He is 
majoring in the performing arts. * Roxana Lewis 
Blackmore reports that she has “no spare time. 
House, garden, trips to doctors (for husband). Social 
life is mostly VFW and AAUW.” Roxie is “glad we 
could do M.A. credit while undergrads.” She 
received her M.A in French in 1940. She also later 
attended Middlebury’s Spanish School. ♦ We 
regret to report the death of Everett F. Ellis on 
January 20. Condolences go to his wife, Margaret, 
and all the family. A memorial appeared in the 
summer issue. 

Class Secretaries: Mrs. Barbara Hopkins 
(Barbara Gregory), 1021 W. Devonshire 
Rd., Delafieid, Wl 53018; and Marshall 
Sewell, 20 Morning Glory Ln., Whiting, 

NJ 08759. 

The Society ofWoman Geographers honored 
Gertrude Dole with an Outstanding 
Achievement Award at its triennial meeting in FL 
last May.The citation mentioned her contributions 
in the field of anthropology—particularly the ecol¬ 
ogy and ethnology of South American Indians of 
the Amazon region—and her influence as a teacher 
and adviser of graduate students in anthropology. 
Congratulations! Although Trudie remains physical¬ 
ly incapacitated in a nursing home in NYC, her sis¬ 
ter informs us that she enjoys communications of 
all kinds. Her mailing address is c/o D.D. Johnson, 
20 Loeffler Rd., #T619, Bloomfield, CT 06002. * 
Good to hear from Gladys Caldroney. who 
reports an interesting trip to the Orient, cruising 
from Hong Kong to Japan along the China coast, 
with many sightseeing trips along the way. She has 
been blessed with good health, but admits that gar¬ 
dening does give her a bit of trouble. # A letter 
from Helen Dawson Campbells daughter, 

Penny, tells us that Helen is a patient in an 
Alzheimer’s unit. Although she struggles with con¬ 
fusion, she is a happy, busy person, delighting in her 
children, enjoying a resident cat, caring for flower 
gardens, and playing the piano for other residents. 

* John ’38 and Carol Bloom Chalmers are well 
and keeping busy with community work, particu¬ 
larly in the fields of foster care, welfare reform, and 
living wage issues.They were looking forward to a 
family gathering on Cape Cod in August-. # 
Chuck and Helene Cosenza ’38 Chase were join¬ 
ing an Elderhostel group in June, visiting various 
sites along the Connecticut River. Later in the 
summer, they planned to spend time at their cot¬ 


tage. # Marion Gerling Church still enjoys trav¬ 
eling to FL with friends in the winter and playing 
bridge often, in spite of some lack of mobility due 
to two knee replacements. She would like to see 
any Midd friends traveling her way. # Doris 
Downing Daley had a busy year with the beauti¬ 
ful weddings of two granddaughters and a wonder¬ 
ful vacation in Palm Springs, CA. She planned her 
usual family reunion on Cape Cod tliis summer. 

# Eleanor Milligan Dormont has the true gift 
of enjoying the everyday things about her, writing 
that she is “bird, flower, and pet happy.” Her chil¬ 
dren live close by and visit often, prompting 
Eleanor and husband Paul to say, “No need for cas¬ 
tles in Spain.” Good for you both! # Still spend¬ 
ing summer in her “Sunapee Place,” Caroline 
Elliott Dorst is enjoying her music and teaching 
some piano. She reminisced about still using her 
1936 typewriter with French accents on it. She 
used to carry it to the gym for exams—“all but 
Greek”—in our Midd days. # Rudy and Jean 
(Mae) Wilcox Day still make their annual journey 
to FL via motor home. They enjoy spending their 
time there with special friends, who also come 
every year. Mae’s only granddaughter, a college 
senior, was elected president of student government 
and last year was named the student who had done 
most for her college. # Paul Foster described a 
wedding in Dallas in which he was honored with 
giving the bride away. When the bride renewed her 
vows in Lausanne, Switzerland, Paul again played 
the role of “father of the bride.” He spent two 
weeks in Switzerland and another week in 
London, before returning to Cape Cod. # Pete 
Frohock admits he still loves to dance. However, 
his most important job is “carrying his wife’s bags.” 
She has played two concerts in Greece and was 
then invited to play the organ in Chartres 
Cathedral commemorating the 50th anniversary of 
French Liberation. No retirement there! * Good 
to hear from Maijorie Bulkeley Garwood at last 
and learn that all are enjoying life from day to day. 

# Marion and Frank Guild recently celebrated 
their 57th anniversary. Both are well and happy, and 
they enjoy having their daughter and family living 
nearby. # After traveling from Australia to Russia, 
from AK to South America, Harold and Cay 
Branch Frasure have sold their beloved family 
home and farm and have moved into a cottage in a 
retirement complex. Cay is happy in her new 
home, although she is struggling with the usual 
problems of advancing age. She and Harold are 
both interested in hearing any Midd news and ’37 
activities. * It was a joy to hear from “Perky” 
(Marion Perkins Hackett) at long last. She is liv¬ 
ing in a nursing home in St. Albans,VT, near her 
beloved cottage on Lake Champlain. She would 
love to hear from classmates at Holiday House, 642 
Sheldon Rd., St. Albans,VT 05478. Isabelle 
McCann Rogovin writes: “My husband’s failing 
health prevented me from attending our 60th 
Reunion and he died in September 1997, after 10 
years of disability. I plan to stay in Waterford, CT, 
the rest of my life and in my home as long as I can 
find help. I play bridge every week, enjoy senior 
citizens and women’s club activities, AAUW, and 
church. Since it takes me longer to do everything, I 
am very busy!” * We regret to report the death of 
Maijorie Fielden Kimball on May 17. A memo¬ 
rial appears elsewhere in this issue. * Walt 
Brooker reports that the cursed arthritis makes 
him quite immobile. He and Bobbie Carrick 
Brooker ’40 spent a pleasant winter in Middlebury, 
enjoying the men’s and women’s hockey season in 
the beautiful new ice arena. * Nancy Blanchard 



Britton has found her speech improved to some 
extent by recent surgery for a paralyzed vocal cord. 
Her son, Dr. Chuck Britton, has taken five of his 
students to Vienna to compete in the International 
Young Physicians Tournament, the first team fielded 
by the U.S. She also mentions a granddaughter, 
Sarah Weber, who won first place in her school’s 
science fair and was chosen to play violin in a 
regional music festival. Nancy keeps active by run¬ 
ning several miles before breakfast! # The Phil 
Brown family was staying close to home this sum¬ 
mer, with Helen recovering from a broken pelvis. 
Constant visits from children and grandchildren 
made summer fun, especially with Phil’s new-found 
talents at cooking and housekeeping. # Juno 
Jones Corbett is enjoying her treetop condo in 
the heart of downtown Venice, FL. She is trying to 
decide whether to stay where she is or move closer 
to her kids, while adjusting to life alone since 
Ross’s death. What a universal problem among all 
us ’37ers! * Doris Cutting is very happy at Wake 
Robin, where there is so much going on all the 
time. She feels that in many ways Wake Robin is 
like the Middlebury of our era. Sounds great! 



Class Secretaries: Mrs. Charles M. Hall 
(Margaret Leslie), 510 Wake Robin Dr., 
Shelburne, VT 05482. 


Last spring, Florence Hulme Miner had the 
delightful experience of seeing her grandson, Jesse 
Koenig, graduate from Middlebury magna cum 
laude. “Then—the icing on the cake—after the 
graduation ceremonies Charlie and Tommy 
Leslie Hall came to pick me up and took me to 
Wake Robin for a lovely overnight stay. Thanks to 
Tommy’s hospitable arrangements, I also saw Lois 
Bestor Craig ’37 and had a good chat with E. 

Bar mini Gardner # Sherb Lovell’s fascinating 
account of his hitchhiking tour of the U.S. in 1937 
ran as a series in the Springfield (VT) Reporter last 
spring. # We regret to report the death of Arthur 
L. Barney on January 14. Condolences go to his 
wife and to his daughter, Anne Barney Van Order 
’79. A memorial appeared in the summer issue. * 
Condolences also go to the family of Alice Chase 
Wells. who died on May 1 6 . # Anne Kilbride 
Long sent the sad news that her husband,Tom, 
died on December 8,1998. In the spring Anne 
wrote a lovely letter about her recent trip to CA, 
where she attended a grandson’s Eagle Scout award 
ceremony. Anne lives in North York, Ontario, a 
suburb ofToronto, where she is “back to the bridge 
table three times a week and spends time with 
friends and family.” # Polly Overton Camp 
wrote that “snow bunnies from Florida, Louise 
Hoyt Short and Bets Osborne Peeler were 
north, so I rounded upjeanie Hoadley Dudley 
and we lunched together here. Nels and Bets’ hus¬ 
band Jim took a walk while there was much chat¬ 
ter and laughing, but nothing startling was discov¬ 
ered.” Proving once again that besides offering us a 
great education, Middlebury also gave us friend¬ 
ships to last a lifetime. It is indeed remarkable how 
the years roll away when we make opportunities 
for mini-reunions. * Art and Beverly Browning 
’39 Gilbert spent the summer at their camp across 
the lake at Willsboro.We miss them here at Wake 
Robin and looked forward to their return. * Soon 
after Frank and Eleanor Barnum Gardner 
moved to Wake Robin, Eleanor started a quilting 
group. Five residents meet once a week for several 
hours.Their current project is creating beautifully 
designed quilts for each room at Respite House, a 
residence for terminally ill patients in Williston. 


Fall 5 



















Elizabeth Saunders ’99 and her grandfather, Stan 
Saunders ’40 (see 1940 column) 


Instead of being numbered, each room is named 
for an animal, so E. and her committee have 
designed individual quilts with the appropriate ani¬ 
mal motif. They have completed 12 of the total 14. 
★ Can you top this? Dale and Janet Randall 
Morgan have 12 great-grandchildren! 


39 


Class Secretaries: Ms. Jeanette Olson 
Gould, 632 Red Barn Rd., Box 543, 
Quechee, VT 05059; and Mrs. Raymond 
I J. Skinner (Ruth Coleman), Brainerd St., 
P.O. Box 52, Danville, VT 05828. 


Rearing class secretaries Thor and Carol Miner 
Gustafson report: On a beautiful and very warm 
weekend, 36 members of the Class of 1939 and 
respective spouses and friends gathered for a most 
wonderful reunion. Due to the cooperation of the 
Middlebury staff and student hosts, we had a great 
get-together. After registration and settling in, we 
had an outdoor cookout dinner in front of Proctor 
which was most attractively presented. Afterwards 
we had a chance to visit at the Gamut Room at 
Gifford or attend various concerts or bands. On 
Saturday there were walking tours of the campus 
and the Rededication of Old Stone Row, recogniz¬ 
ing the listing of Old Chapel, Painter Hall, and 
Starr Hall on the National Register of Historic 
Places. We then assembled for our reunion parade 
and the Alumni Convocation at Mead Chapel. It is 
always a thrill to be present at this gathering of all 
the classes with the chapel adorned by class ban¬ 
ners. It was especially thrilling to see four members 
of the class of 1929 being escorted down the aisle 
by President and Mrs. McCardell amidst much 
clapping and tapping of canes. It was rather 
unnerving to find our class in the next row of seats! 
At Convocation, they announced our reunion gift 
of $456,578 with approximately 90 percent partici¬ 
pating, thanks to the outstanding efforts of Bert 
MacFadden and committee members Jeanette 
Gould, Betty Mettler, and Duncan Rollason. 
After chapel we proceeded to the presidents house 
for a delicious luncheon. A highlight of this occa¬ 
sion was the presentation by Don Meserve,Jr., to 
President McCardell of an ancient deflated foot¬ 
ball—a relic from the famous 1923 game between 
Middlebury and Harvard which ended in a 6-6 tie 
score. Do you remember President Moody telling 
the story in Chapel? When he was called about the 
game, he thought his informant said the score was 
66-6, which was what he expected it would be. It 
was quite an event to have the son of our deceased 
classmate, Don Meserve, be with us. President 
McCardell gave a wonderful acceptance speech in 
recognition of this most unusual gift for 
Middlebury s sports history. We had our class pic¬ 
ture taken in front of the presidents house, then we 


reconvened at the amphitheater alongside Gifford 
where the college chaplain, Laurel Macaulay Jordan 
’79, graciously conducted a very moving service. A 
candle was lit by various members of the class for 
each of the members of our class who have passed 
on since our last reunion: Arthena Gregg 
Atwood, Borden Avery, Melvin Carter, 
Leonard Galassi, Beth Heward Jackson, Hazel 
Bien Mack, Anna Sprague Munson, George 
(Coolie) Park, Richard Sabra, Stanley 
Sprague, Donald Stone, Stanley Thompson, 
and Cora May Farrier Wade. That afternoon var¬ 
ious tours of town and campus were conducted, 
after which we assembled at the Middlebury Inn 
for an excellent dinner arranged by Louise 
Roberts Avery. As Master of Ceremony, A. 

Roger Clarke entertained us with poetry and 
prose. Our special guests were Walter ’37 and 
Bobbie Carrick Brooker ’40 and Bob ’40 and 
Bobbie Plumer Alden ’40. A surprise award was 
presented to Bert MacFadden. the Gold Key 
Award, given to the post-50th reunion class with 
the greatest percentage of class members participat¬ 
ing. After dinner some of our more active class¬ 
mates went to a reunion dance, while others gath¬ 
ered again in the Gamut Room. Our weekend 
concluded with a delicious brunch on Sunday at 
the home of Correan and Bob Cushman on 
Court Street. It was a wonderful get-together as we 
were all in an intimate setting and in a beautiful 
home where we could visit and partake of a partic¬ 
ularly delightful and elegant brunch before leaving 
Middlebury and heading home. # Those attending 
reunion, and not mentioned elsewhere in this col¬ 
umn, were Irene Fernandez Anderson, 

Harriett Barnes Ball, Elinor Wieland Cain, 
Boyd Carr, Dorothy Korb Carter, Helen 
Brewer Chadwick, Virginia Orde Church, 
Joyce Mackenzie Cropsey,Jane Howard 
Fiske, Joseph Foley, Beverly Browning 
Gilbert, Edward Grosenbeck, Betty Anne 
Dunning Jones, Kenneth Kinsey, Elizabeth 
Letson, Bertha Waite Markland, Tom and 
Gertrude Bittle Murray, Olive Holbrook 
Nagle, Robert Rathbone, Evelyn Wheeler 
Stagg, Roger Thompson, Mary Lou Race 
Tonge, Joseph Trask, William Watt, and Roland 
Wolcott. Maijorie Kohr Lovell joined us for 
Convocation. We are sure everyone felt very proud 
to be a graduate of Middlebury and we certainly 
appreciated the graciousness and hospitality of 
President and Mrs. McCardell. ...At our dinner on 
Saturday, Jeanette Olson Goulds selection as class 
secretary was announced. We are going to miss 
hearing from you on occasion, but hope you will 
make Jeanette’s job enjoyable by supplying her with 



Midd recruiters in Coral Gables (see 1941 column) 


lots of news. (Send it to her at 632 Red Barn Rd., 
Box 543, Quechee, VT 05059; e-mail 
jogvt@aol.com). Jeanette and Ruthie Coleman 
Skinner will carry on together. We wish to thank 
Ruthie for her 12 years of service to the class. We 
don’t think there are many who can match her! * 
It is our sad duty to report that Art Jacques ’40 died 
recendy.We extend our deepest sympathy to 
Eleanor Jeschke Jacques. # Barbara and Frank 
Avery report a move “from one life care commu¬ 
nity to another to be closer to our eldest son, Fred, 
in Cherry Hill, NJ. Daughter Barbara Ann is still in 
Greenwich Village, NYC, and son Dick is moving 
soon from Seattle, WA, to Montana’s wide open 
spaces. We no longer travel any distance, but have 
fond thoughts of Middlebury as we knew it years 
ago. Still in touch with Fred Wheeler. “You can 
reach the Averys at Harvest Village #A202,114 
Hayes Mill Road, Atco, NJ 08004. # Rotha and 
“Doc” Loring Lane were planning to attend 
reunion, but had to cancel because Loring had a 
double bypass and a valve replacement just before 
reunion. They sent their best regards to all class¬ 
mates. * So our five-year stint is over and it has 
been a great joy to hear news of you all. Good luck 
to Ruthie and Jeanette! 



Class Secretary: Marjorie Burditt Striker, 
211 Sandy Pond Rd., Lincoln, MA 
01173. 


It has been a thrill to hear from so many of you. I 
appreciate your responses. I hope others will be 
inspired to send news or comments for the next 
column. * We begin with a photograph that says it 
all. Pride glows from the face of Stan Saunders 
and joy emanates from that of his granddaughter, 
Elizabeth J. Saunders ’99, who had just graduated 
from Middlebury magna cum laude this May. 
Congratulations to you, Stan, and to Elizabeth. * 
Bobbie Plumer Alden, daughter Shari Galligan 
Johnson ’68, and granddaughter Hilary Johnson ’02 
shared a fun and exciting experience. Representing 
three generations of Middlebury College tennis 
players, they were featured as a Middlebury tennis¬ 
playing family on Burlington’s television Channel 3 
last spring. * When Ed Reichert went to 
Midway Island in April on a 10-day Elderhostel 
service program, he found it “a real eye-opener. 

The Navy has turned it over to the Fish and 
Wildlife Bureau and it’s now a sanctuary with lim¬ 
ited visitation of about 100 people at any one time 
(other than about 150 maintenance force and pro¬ 
fessionals doing research).The island is a nesting 
ground for sea birds—albatross, frigate birds, terns, 
etc.—and there are no predators. The rats have 
been exterminated and there are no hawks or other 
natural predators. The focus of the Elderhostel pro¬ 
gram is to try to restore the island to its natural 
habitat, somewhat changed by the invasion of 
underwater cable people (pre-1900). Pan American 
Airways (1930s), and the U.S. military (1940- 
1997).’’ * Betty Carpenter Metcalf enjoyed her 
professional career teaching in public schools, main¬ 
ly kindergarten.“Since retiring I have enjoyed years 
of doing artwork and decorating our rooms with 
pieces called cross stitch.” Betty’s old home in 
Montpelier was featured in an article in the spring 
issue of this magazine. * “More than 50 years ago,” 
writes Almy Coggeshall (a former Chemical 
Engineer with GE),“a group of General Electric 
engineers pooled their resources and bought a 273- 
acre farm, which they developed on capital they 
raised themselves to create a self-contained com¬ 
munity of 84 homes. Two hundred acres of the 


52 Middlebury Magazine 



















original farm are still in unspoiled open space, 
forests, field and a pond.” * Salome ‘Bix’ Ross 
Demaree writes that she is still birding, “mostly 
out of the country. I really enjoy South America 
and go there almost every year. I have just finished 
coauthoring Birds of Phoenix and Maricopa County, 
Arizona .” * Bill Markland ’41 wrote to inform us 
of the recent death of Art Jacques. As Bill said, 
“Art made a sizable contribution to campus life.” 
The sympathy of the class is extended to Art’s fami¬ 
ly. * “Unfortunately,” writes Elaine Nickerson 
Rucho, of Mount Dora, FL, “being half way down 
this 800-mile-long peninsula of a state, I feel very 
far from our college and have long since lost all 
connection with those I knew there.” She says that 
neither she nor her husband is in good health. 

We’re glad to reconnect with you, Elaine! # Lois 
Gillette Thorkilsen describes trying to keep up 
land which was once a farm and a 360-year-old 
house. “It’s an unending job. I vowed to get peas in 
early, but johnny-jump-ups and other plants are 
taking the space and some underground dwellers 
are making big mounds of dirt and heaving stones 
into this year’s growth. I’ll probably have to settle 
for zucchini, winter squash, and cucumbers.” * 
Alice Atwood Spaulding enjoyed the article on 
the Carpenter house. As she was writing, she was 
packing for an Elderhostel trip to England.“I have 
forgotten how many times I’ve been to England, 
but always remember the first, when I was there a 
month with the National Council ofTeachers of 
English.” She plans to be at reunion and hopes to 
see a lot of the class there. * Ken Temple sent 
the sad news of the death of his wife, Ruth, after 
55 years of marriage. He speaks of the return of 
mountain bluebirds to his Montana property and of 
mountain chickadees wintering there. Because of 
plentiful snow last winter, he hopes for a good hay 
crop. One job that he anticipated was “getting out 
and filling up the badger holes.” * Sally 
Nothnagle Tefft still actively manages the newspa¬ 
per in Greenwich, NY. “It may be a weekly but it 
provides a full week of activity, different from a 
daily in that one doesn’t do just one job. One does 
all phases, including layout of pages for printing, 
preparing for mailing, paying bills, and starting all 
over again. I am happy to be busy and able to do it. 
Starting in 2000, the Tefft family will have pro¬ 
duced the paper for 100 years.” # Laura Smith 
Whitworth writes that “one grandson has an engi¬ 
neering job in Park City, UT, and skis; the other is 
pursuing a spot on the Nordic Olympic team. One 
granddaughter is a member of a modern dance 
company in NYC, and another works for a bank in 
London.” Laura still has her shop, but has listed it 
for sale. * Ken Quackenbush writes “to verify 
my existence and to salute the class of 1940. There 
is little new in my life—except a new knee, which 
I am expecting to allow me to get back on the ten¬ 
nis courts and ski trails again after two years off. 
Along the way I’ve come to realize that it seems to 
be less of a problem to acquire new body parts 
than it is to replace old sail boat parts. Well, at least 
we’re afloat. Up anchor!” # A letter from Jean 
Sweeny Hancock resembles a lecture by Prof. 
Heinrichs, as she runs down the list of national and 
world affairs, adding cogent comments. She and her 
daughter recently made the college tour for her 
granddaughter. * Charlie Straight wrote of the 
death of his wife, Pauline. They had been married 
for 57 years.The class sends its sympathy # Arthur 
Andres describes his years as a fighter pilot early in 
World Wir II and as an instructor ofWest Point 
cadets in the latter years. He has held various posi¬ 
tions with General Electric Co. Nowadays he 


divides his time between Cape Cod and Naples, 

FL. # Up in ME, Loring Pratt is still writing and 
published two articles last year. “Most of my time, 
in good weather, is spent gardening. We raise more 
than we can eat, but always find someone who 
needs or wants the produce. We had a lot of things 
to do with grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 
It is a real source of satisfaction for me to have had 
the privilege of practicing medicine.” # Stan 
Moore offers us a challenge: “Since March I have 
resumed walking on the Appalachian Trail, having 
complete 192.3 miles so far this year. I’ve finished 
1,827.9 miles, leaving 332.3 miles to go. With a lit¬ 
tle bit of luck, I’m hoping to have hiked the entire 
2,160.2 miles by the fall. I’ve been hoping some of 
our classmates might join me, but so far, no takers.” 
# I’d like to end the column by recommending 
some of the books written by faculty members of 
Middlebury’s English department. I have thorough¬ 
ly enjoyed John Elder’s Reading the Mountains of 
Home, Julia Alvarez s (’71) three novels and a non¬ 
fiction called Something to Declare, Robert Pack’s 
poetry, and Jay Parini’s The Patch Boys, as well as his 
reviews in the newspapers. 


41 


13856. 


Class Secretary: S.J. House, 51 
McKinstry Hill Rd., Hyde Park, VT 
05655; and Ruth Packard Jones (Mrs. 
Charles), RR 1, Box 86A, Walton, NY 


An alumni/recruiting reunion in Coral Gables, FL, 
brought together Carlos Lopez-Gottardi ’94, 
Claudine Coto ’95, Alice Noppel Knight, 
Richard Rivas ’93, Michael Cohen ’94, and Tina 
Lopez-Gottardi ’95. (See photo.) * Becky 
(Mildred Becker Elefante) and husband Michael 
invite friends to visit them in their new home. 
They decided three years ago to leave FL, where 
they had enjoyed living for 12 years. “Motivated by 
concerns for future health care and by a wish to 
live closer to family, we spent a month visiting con¬ 
tinuing care communities near our children in PA, 
MA, and DC. In our search we were guided by a 
booklet published by the Continuing Care 
Accreditation Commission. Our choice of 
Collington Life Care Community, located a mile 
off the Beltway in MD, has been a happy one. We 
live in a cottage on a wooded campus with 400 
residents who have given us a sense of community. 
Relieved of house maintenance and yard work, we 
are free to take part in a variety of intellectual and 
physical activities, both here and in Washington. 
Most of all we are enjoying the people.” # A 
report from North Myrde Beach, SC, tells of an 
April Hillside mini-reunion hosted by Laddie 
(Edith Ladd Evans). I can imagine what a great 
time was enjoyed by Miggles (Margaret 
Whittlesey), Shirley Metcalfe Handforth, Alice 
Noppel Knight, and Hope Smith Marshburn. 
Miggles s activiries have been somewhat hampered 
by an eye problem, but she keeps active and is 
enjoying her new home in South Hero,VT. She 
only wishes she might have brought her beautifully 
cultivated garden from North Hero. It can be really 
tough starting a new one from scratch, but she’s 
doing it. # In mid-June, Jean Emmons reported 
she was recuperating nicely from her May 4 double 
knee replacement surgery. She was pleasandy sur¬ 
prised to find her “porch garden” well started by 
good friends when she returned from rehab. ★ 
After a difficult year healthwise, Buttsie (Caroline 
Butts Dodge) was looking forward to a family 
reunion-celebration of her big 80 birthday July 22 
at her brother’s summer camp in ME. We hope it 


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Fall 53 


Midd Connection 

















PROFILE 


THE CHURCH THAT 


% W # HILE A STUDENT, 

I Bert Rolfe ’44 was 
W jf helping out a nearby 
farmer by doing some haying, when 
one day he came across an unused 
church.The Union Church of New 
Haven Mills,VT, had stood empty 
and in disrepair for decades, but Rolfe devoted himself to restoring and reinvigo¬ 
rating it. He brought college friends along to help and later became a lay minister. 

As an American literature major, Rolfe spent his time on campus considering 
the works ofWhitman,Thoreau, and Emerson. These complemented his own con¬ 
victions and ideals which, during the height ofWorldWar II, led him to declare 
himself a conscientious objector. 

Near the end ofWorld War II, Rolfe joined the army. We cannot know what 
changed his mind and compelled him to enlist. The war was all around him: a 
naval officer training program was thriving on campus, his younger brother Hugh 
had enlisted, and his brothers at Sigma Alpha were signing up. Bert was a doer: 
perhaps he couldn’t stay on the sidelines anymore. 

Before he was shipped out, Rolfe promised his congregation: “Someday I will 
fill this church.” Within weeks he had. Shot by a sniper, Rolfe was remembered at 
a memorial service held where he had often preached. Records show that it was 
filled to the rafters. It isn’t often that a college student leaves such a lasting legacy. 
But Rolfe was a young man with solid convictions. He had a clear sense of per¬ 
sonal mission and the dedication to complete it. 

Local families follow in Rolfe s footsteps today as stewards of the church. 
Weddings, concerts, and summer services are taking place once again. Like Rolfe, 
these stewards treasure this church and work toward his same goals. They remem¬ 
ber him by displaying his story and his photograph prominently in the foyer. 

—Kerry K. Skiffington 


ROLFE HELPED BUILD 



was a delightful occasion, Buttsie, and brought back 
many happy memories of past good times there. * 
Sara Martenis Townsend reports from Meriden, 
NH, that she and Ira ’42 travel here and there, but 
not far. She keeps in touch with Bobby Mower 
Brown, who has been in a Virginia nursing home 
since suffering a couple of strokes. Her son is near¬ 
by and a granddaughter. Star, whom she especially 
enjoys. * Babs Warren Loftus is still finding it 
difficult to adjust to Lofty’s death and to her new 
living situation. Her son and daughter visit her 
quite often, which helps. * Howard Hasbrouck 
sounded great from his home in FL, where he 
keeps active playing lots of golf. He traveled to MI 
to spend the summer. * Jim Cassedy is in the 
process of finishing up another book. He reports 
that brother Bill Cassedy attended a grandson’s 
commencement as well as a granddaughter’s high 
school graduation. He keeps busy attending plays 
and concerts. * On April 1, Peg Williams 


Rhodes moved to a nursing home in Taunton, 
MA, where her family can visit daily and takes her 
out frequently. She would enjoy cards or notes sent 
to her home address. * Babs Grow Grim injur¬ 
ing herself in a fall on March 23, resulting in 
lengthy hospitalization and rehab. Learning to use 
her left arm with a replacement ball in her left 
shoulder was taking a lot of patience. She hoped to 
be home by the end of June. Good luck, B! * Jack 
and Westie (Helen West Burbank) attended a 
granddaughters high school graduarion in State 
College, PA. in June. On their way home, they paid 
a brief overnight visit to Packy (Ruth Packard 
Jones), who had just returned from her grand¬ 
daughter’s graduation in York, PA. The time was 
short, but enough for some good catching up. * 
We regret to report the death of Marjorie Smith 
Storer on April 29 and send the condolences of 
the class to her husband, James, and all the family. A 
memorial appears elsewhere in this issue. 


Class Secretaries: Mr. atid Mrs. John /: 
Bates (Nancy Rindfusz), 62 / Laurel 
Lake Dr., #B119, Columbus, NC 
28722. 

The personal cards we sent out really brought 
responses! * Jane Giblin Langey's card was 
returned, as they have a new CT address. * Alice 
Austin Suydam is seeing the world. After some 
traveling in Portugal, she was sailing from Lisbon to 
San Salvador, Brazil, stopping at islands in the South 
Atlandc. New Year’s Eve 1999, she’ll be in 
Greenwich, England. * Now at home in Acton, 
MA. Ray Squire retired last year and took up 
community work and the church board of trustees. 
He drove a four-year-old to a child-development 
center four days a week and saw a new side of the 
world. He and his wife have done their share of 
traveling, including the Tattoo in Halifax, which he 
says is the greatest military pageant they’ve ever 
seen. (We agree!) Ray is still drumming in a musi¬ 
cal group. * Dave Emmons is sort of retired. He 
calls on patients at Cape Cod Hospital in the surgi¬ 
cal day care unit as a member of the clergy staff, 
assisting in services and overseeing the prayer min¬ 
istry. The Community of Jesus involves worship, 
music with a Gregorian choir, drama, and art. Last 
January he went to the Marshall Islands to visit a 
young man from Micronesia who lived with them 
as a boy. * Virgie Witte Miller has moved to 
another address in Tucson: 11606 N.Teskow Dr., 
Tucson, AZ 85737. * Elinor Dickie Rankin is 
active in Chatham Church Women and is on the 
Chatham board of assistance. She had a nice visit 
with Dotty Forsythe Dale ’43 and her husband. 

She had just returned from a two-week visit with 
her farmer sister in SD, where she went to 
Rushmore, Bear Country, Crazy Horse, the 
Badlands—and, of course, Wall Drug. She expected 
to see Margi Fell Council and Joan Calley 
Cooper in CA this fall. * Hope Rood Redway 
and Dotty Milligan Schuck went traveling 
together again to Prague and Budapest, then up the 
Danube into Austria and southern Germany. They 
both loved Prague. Dotty stayed with Hope in 
England for a few days and visited Arundel Castle, 
took in a play, and lunched at a pub. * Nina 
Camuti Danielsen had lunch with Elma Boyer s 
cousin and her niece, as she does yearly. Nina does 
her museum stuff two days a week and works in 
the hospital. She takes small trips and has one of 
her daughters at home. * Bob Bredenberg 
tripped through northern New England, with a 
two-hour sail out of Camden and a round of golf 
in NH.They were in Green Valley, AZ, last winter 
and plan on a return engagement this winter. Bill 
and Meg Buscher Andrews have a lovely home 
there, where we visited last February. * Lewis 
Alexander said that he “leads a quiet life,” but—as 
an expert consultant on international maritime 
boundary cases—he traveled to the Persian Gulf 
area seven times last year, working on the Bahrain- 
Qatar maritime boundary dispute, which is before 
the World Court in the Hague. More recently he 
has been advising the provincial government of 
Nova Scotia in a maritime boundary controversy 
with Newfoundland. Lew and his wife of 48 years 
have four grandchildren in the State ofWA; the 
oldest boy is interested in Middleburv. * Jack 
McMann still lives in Potsdam, where he has sea¬ 
son tickets to the Clarkson hockey games. (He 
remembers how cold it was playing on the outdoor 
rink at Midd.) He has a grandson who is a senior 
at Clarkson, a daughter who lives in Lake Placid, 
and a daughter who is an assoc, prof, of counseling 



54 Middlebury Magazine 

















at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse. The 
latter gave the main address at the honors convoca¬ 
tion. # Jim Ferren and wife June are healthy. He’s 
writing short stories and poetry. Jim and Art 
Rasmussen stay in touch and solve the worlds 
problems. # We were sorry to hear that Alice 
Voorhees Adams lost her eldest daughter and has 
had health problems and hospital visits. She now 
lives in a retirement community with some old 
friends and some new ones. “Nina Danielsen has 
been especially kind and helpful,” she reports. Alice 
made the trip out to Chicago for her grandson’s 
wedding. Go, Girl! # Now retired from 26 years of 
teaching in the NY State schools, Dean Northrop 
winters in St. Petersburg (FL) and summers in 
Proctor (VT). Another active retiree, his main 
hobby is gardening, but he’s also in church choirs, 
runs a church fund-raiser, does volunteer hospital 
work, and enjoys Elderhostel trips. # Jean 
Macdonald Bagley (alias Sandy) has been a no- 
show for years—and after reading her letter, I can 
see why! Plays bridge and tennis regularly, walks a 
big dog, runs a house with a live-in daughter who 
plays a bagpipe, and has a myriad of relatives close 
by. With three sons, she has six grandchildren and 
two greats. * Helen Hooley Young was in hospi¬ 
tal for some surgery and was expected home in late 
July. Her married son, David, has two children. # 
Bill Hennefrund is doing photography and writ¬ 
ing articles about area artists. We were sorry to hear 
of the death of his sister. Bill’s wife, author Tommy 
Ring Hennefrund ’44, has a new book this year, 
Monarch Butterfly of Aster Way. (She publishes under 
the name of Elizabeth Ring.) # Every summer, 
Phil and Betty Blanchard Robinson go to ME, 
where they see Jim Cornwall ’40 and wife 
Margery. Phil and Betty went up to Lunenburg, 
Nova Scotia, to greet the ship on which their son 
had sailed around the world. # Charlie Kitchell 
had pneumonia last January and a new valve and 
bypass in May Dodie Watson Kitchell hasn’t 
been well and can’t drive, so her sister and her 
friends had been taking her to the hospital to visit 
Charlie. Hang in there, you two! # We regret to 
report the June 11 death of Fred Whitehouse. 
Since he had been so ill, Nancy (Hall 
Whitehouse) can’t wish him back, but it still isn’t 
easy. She works several times a year at Nielsen 
Media Research and planned a September trip to 
New England with Ginny Smith Baker. # It is 
also our sad duty to report the deaths of Lucille 
Plasman Grosse (February 1) and Ruth 
Montgomery Titsworth. * Beatrice Simpler 
Braun —a family-practice doctor, psychiatrist, for¬ 
mer nun, and activist for AARP—has been 
appointed to the national Medicare Payment 
Advisory Committee, a 17-member board that 
advises Congress on Medicare issues. Bea was with 
us for two years at Midd, before she became a 
Maryknoll missionary. As Sister Agnes Thcrese, she 
worked at a medical clinic in South Korea during 
the Korean War. In 1969, she met a Jesuit named 
Dick Braun.They fell in love, she left the convent, 
he left the priesthood, and they were married in 
1970. Her husband was a founder of the Human 
Resources Group. Shortly after their retirement to 
FL in 1989, Bea responded to a newspaper article 
about AARP’s need for volunteers to help older 
people understand Medicare and supplemental 
medical insurance. She expanded the program 
statewide and was asked to serve on AARP’s 
national legislative council. Since then she has been 
at the forefront of public policy issues and has testi¬ 
fied many times before Congressional committees. 
* In our next column, you can look forward to 


news from Mary Eimer Leinbach, Sue Hulings 
Ottinger, Roger Arnold, David Smith, and 
Peter Stanlis. Thanks to all who wrote. We hope 
to hear from the rest of you. Remember to put us 
on your Christmas card list! 



Class Secretaries: Chick Johnson Doe, 
327 Ayer Rd., Harvard, MA 01451; 
and Dr.John S. Gale, 24 Beach Rd., 
Gloucester, MA 01930. 


Down memory lane, note the photo of Hepburn 
Hall waitresses, taken in 1943. In some cases we had 
to guess, but we think they are (front) Lonny 
Herron Hadley, Chick Johnson Doe, Dottie 
Forsythe Dale, (back) Skip Wilkin Dimond, 
Margaret Dounce Dale, Mandy Sanborne 
Krieble, a mystery person (please let us know if 
you recognize her), Teddy Hood Bittmann, and 
Inki Monk Stevenson. Our thanks to Lonny 
Hadley for sharing the photo. Lonny remembers 
“our days of waiting table at Hepburn” as being “as 
important to my education as classes and campus. A 
fine and fun group I’d like to remember.” Lonny 
and husband A1 are in the process of selling their 
Maine house, after which they plan to go south. # 
Fielding and Elbe Reier Brown are now dividing 
their time between their Beacon Street apartment 
in Boston and a retirement community in 
Westwood, MA. Their Westwood address is 10 
Longwood Dr., #375, Fox Hill Village, Westwood, 
MA 02090; 781-326-9583. * As reported in the 
last column, Jim and Mandy Sanborne Krieble 
have also moved to a retirement community (in 
Hanover, NH), while keeping their summer place 
on Lake Willoughby. They had lived for more than 
40 years in Shaker Heights, OH. # Helen Bouck 
Hildebrandt (Bookie) has moved to an apartment 
in Slingerlands, NY. # Cutler and Kay Sempepos 
Silliman tell us that their son and his family have 
moved from Buenos Aires to Maine. We who live 
in New England hope to see more of Kay and 
Cuder in the future. # Stan Tupper reports that 
this is his 50th year as an attorney, “now practicing 
in the family law firm, which is 110 years old. My 
wife, Jill, and I concentrate on family and probate 
law: she takes care of the live ones and I, the dead.” 

♦ After I (Chick) sent out a copy of the Requiem 
to Skip Wilkin Dimond, she wrote to acknowl¬ 
edge it and recalled our Midd choir days, with “Mr. 
Bedford making us practice the processional so 
many times, so many years ago!” Skip reports that 
Bob Rude “has become a good Long Wharf 
Theatre volunteer” in Guilford, CT. # Loie 
Groben Gilmore and I (Chick) have been plan¬ 
ning a September trip to Iceland. We are assured by 
Jan Hooker Laine, who traveled there a year ago, 
that we will have a most enjoyable holiday. My 
pacemaker is a year old and doing what it should! 
Apple blossoms were exceptionally full and beauti¬ 
ful this year. If the birds and our imported bees 
have “done their thing,” we should have a fine crop. 

* Barbara and Roger Easton stopped in on June 
30 on their way home from the Fellows Award 
Banquet of the Institute of Navigation, where 
Roger received an award “for his visionary insight 
into the central role of precision timekeeping in a 
satellite based navigation system and for technical 
leadership in the development of the ‘Timation’ 
satellites that embodied advanced clock technology 
for space applications.” Roger was also being hon¬ 
ored by Middlebury at Homecoming this fall. # 

Do send news! We all want to keep in touch and 
know what you are doing! 



Class Secretaries: Dr. and Mrs. Neil 
Atkins (Marylu Graham), 12 Carter 
Rd., New London, NH 03257. 


Our 55th Reunion has come and gone and a great 
one it was, with 40 percent of the class returning 
and 78 percent participating in our class gift. 
Gorgeous weather helped to make it enjoyable, 
too—especially the class dinner at Kirk Alumni 
Center. Our thanks to Ricki Wheaton Evans and 
Paul Davis for conducting the memorial ceremo¬ 
ny and to Ted Kolzak and Mai Collin for carry¬ 
ing our banner up the hill to Convocation. # Sally 
and A1 Rathbun left for a trip to Wales immedi¬ 
ately after the reunion; Bill and Betty Mercer 
McChrystal left: for a visit with their daughter in 
Switzerland. * The fact that Barbara and Hugh 
Taft, true Vermonters, are moving to Kendal at 
Hanover in NH is startling news! # Don and 
Helen Beardslee Johnstone were celebrating 
their 50th wedding anniversary in August. * Paul 
Davis and Janet Townsend Roberts ’45 enjoyed a 
trip to Mexico to visit friends in February and later 
attended an Elderhostel in Tennessee. ★ Peter 
Jennison, our superb master of ceremonies at the 
class dinner, was awarded the Vermont Arts Council 
Cerf Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts at 
the Council’s annual meeting on June 16 in 
Montpelier. * Nancy Read —who sent Jason 
Price ’99 (a very helpfi.il reunion student host) 
searching for her car in the parking lot without 
giving him the license number—was going to 
Montana and Glacier National Park during the 
summer. # Jane Landes was off on her annual 
visit with relatives in Iowa soon after reunion 
weekend. # For the past seven years, Elihu Wing 
has been working in the Dominican Republic, 
bringing medical aid to Haitian workers in the 
cane factories.This is an ecumenical mission project 
carried on in many states, sending 20 groups each 
year. Spending two to three weeks each year there, 
they serve 100 people a day, attending to basic 
health needs of the workers. During these visits, 
Elihu has done some medical studies on the physi¬ 
cal conditions of these people. # At the class din¬ 
ner, greetings to the class were read from Dorothy 
Burton Skardal, who had faxed us from her 
home in Oslo, Norway. We repeat part of her mes¬ 
sage here: “Do you remember the joke when we 
were young, about how everybody sent postcards 
from home when on vacation with the same mes¬ 
sage:‘Having a wonderftil time—wish you were 
here!’Addressing you tonight I’d have to turn that 
message on its head: ‘You’re surely having a won¬ 
derful time—wish I were there!’ Our 55th 
Reunion couldn’t be better than our 50th, but I 
hope it’s as good. I did so want to come, but my 



A fine group of Hepburn Hall waitresses in 1943 
(see 1943 column) 


s 

5 

a 

n 

o 

z 

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m 

n 

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o 

z 


Fall 55 











PUZZLE 


heart troubles forbid any more long-distance flying. 
With the North Sea and the Atlandc Ocean 
between us, I can be with you tonight in spirit 
only—and with these words. I send them to 
remind you of something you may have forgotten 
or never fully realized: how lucky we are not only 
to have graduated from Middlebury, but also to 
have had the chance to get a liberal arts education 
at all. The four-year liberal arts college as it has 
developed in the United States is unique in the 
world. No other educational institution offers the 
fiill range of academic disciplines and requires its 
students to sample so widely among them before 
specializing; no other educational institution offers 
at the same time participation in sports, the arts, a 
wide range of cultural and social activities, and resi¬ 
dential community experience, often including 
individual contact with professors. Four years to 
explore, to form lifelong friendships, and to 
mature. How privileged we were! So I don’t have 
to be there with you tonight; I have my 
Middlebury experience here in Norway with me, 
and I’ll be there celebrating with you that we were 
so lucky.” # Finally, Neil and Marylu Graham 
Atkins were persuaded to continue as class secre¬ 
taries and Pat Noe Bursaw and Hugh Taft as 
class agents until our 60th Reunion. Translation: 
Send your news items for ’44 class notes to Marylu 
and Neil, and send money for annual giving to Pat 
and Hugh! 

Class Secretaries: Mrs. Donald A. 

Stearns (Shirley Miller), 166-25 Powells 
Cove Blvd, Beechurst, NY 11357; and 
Mr. Peter Q. McKee, 26 Turtleback Road, 
P.O. Box 197, Snnapee, NH 03782. 

It was lunch at Sardis on April 29 for Ruth 
Collins Shikes, Ann Robinson Walker, Alice 
Frederickson Porter, and Mary Elizabeth 
Wisotskey McClellan.They are “beginning to 
plan to go to our 55th in 2000!” # Another “great 
reunion” was reported by Dru (Barbara Drury 
Sand) and her sophomore roommate at Hillcrest 
Cottage,Tippie (Mary Tipping Coughlin), and 
daughter Sue. They lunched—for the first time in 
three years—on May 11 at the Purple Cat restau¬ 
rant in Chepachet, RI. It seems that Dru’s island 
town of Jamestown, RI, was selected by movie 
directors who combed RI for the best example of 
Main Street, USA, with an ocean view for their 
upcoming movie Me, Myself, and Irene, starring Jim 
Carrey ( The Truman Show) and Renee Zellweger 
(One True Thing). The footbridge in Middlebury s 
Frog Hollow was transformed for another scene in 
Me, Myself, and Irene. * Elaine King Dandh 
(e.k.dandh@usa.net) writes from Guadalajara: “My 
first book, A House Far South, in Mexico, is at the 
printers and should be coming out any day now, 
making me Guinness-eligible as perhaps the eldest 
first-time-published writer in the world. My sec¬ 
ond, Mernsahib, is on the Web, at 
www.geocities.com/soho/workshop/1865. It deals 
comically with the culture shock of an American 
woman who goes to India as a bride. The book is 
lying in wait for an unwary publisher to stumble 
upon it.” * Nikky (Jean Lacey Patterson) 
reports: “I swim like a fiend at the local Hilton; 
keeps me out of a wheelchair. I’m quite active as 
historian for Pearl River’s (NY) United Methodist 
Church, but my real love is the ad hoc committee 
investigating swimming pools for the Town of 
Orangetown. From successfully getting the ques¬ 
tion on the ballot in November 1997, achieving a 
YES vote in that election, to working with a con- 



TIME WHEN 

by Jackie Moore '47 

WHAT TIME IS/WAS IT WHEN: 

1. “Pippa Passes”? (Robert Browning poem) 

2 . The mouse ran down the clock? (nursery rhyme) 

3 . The “Danse Macabre” begins? (Saint-Saens composition) 

4 . The ten o’clock scholar finally arrives at school? 

5 . World War I Armistice began in 1918? 

6 . A variety of garden flower blooms? 

7 . Peter denied being drunk on the day of Pentecost? (Acts of the Apostles) 

8 . The shadow of a beard might appear? 

9 . You should “get to bed by_” according to the song “You Belong to Me.” 

10 . “Dinner at_”? (1933 movie starring Jean Harlowe,J. and L. 

Barrymore) 

11 . “The Feud” between the Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat began? 

(Eugene Fielding poem) 

12 . The Chinaman goes to the dentist? (old riddle) 

13 . Wee WillieWinkie says children should be in bed? (nursery rhyme) 

14 . You should be ready for the “The Darktown Strutters’ Ball”? (song) 


sultant on swimming pools, I’ve been active and 
interested in the whole process. Hope I’ll still be 
around to yell ’Last one in is a rotten egg” as I take 
my first dive into the pool. My husband, Ernest 
(80), is still working as a consultant for Wyeth- 
Ayerst (biochemist) and our three children are hap¬ 
pily engaged in their own pursuits.” * With pro¬ 
found sadness, we must tell you of the death of 
Ruth Taylor Wilcoxson on July 20,1999. 
“Taylor,” as she was known to us since freshman 
days in the “Siberia” of Pearsons fourth floor, was a 
dear and loyal friend, traveling from Chicago to 
Vermont every year for “Grupo” at the Rick and 
Betty Hatcher Hruby s place. A newspaper writer 
early in her career, she never ceased to be a realist 
in calling the shots and dealt with the knowledge 
of having a brain minor with forthright courage 
and concern for her family. Heartfelt condolences 
to her daughter, Lesley Kuzmanoff, and son Keith 
and their families, and family and “grupo” friend, 
John Bergesen. 


46 


Class Secretaries: Mary Cummings 
Nordstrom (Mrs. Everett R.) 
(nord7@earthlink.net), 10 Inverness Rd., 
Pinehurst, NC 28374; and Joan 
Campbell Shaw (Mrs. Douglas P.) (camshaw@sover.net), 
Cottage St., RR 2, Box 3412, Manchester Center, VT 
05255. 


You have all heard by now of the death of Dr. 
Freeman on July 10. He was acting president of the 
College for much of the time that our class was at 
Middlebury and we all had great respect and affec¬ 
tion for that wonderful man. * Larry and Jean 
Smith Murphy have moved from their country 


place of 20 acres in Waldoboro to a new retirement 
community in Rockland, ME, set in a lovely 
wooded area—“where birding is excellent.”Jimmie 
writes: “Still canoeing, but flat water only! 

Daughter and her family live 30 minutes away. We 
miss the old place, but think this is a wise move.” * 
Barbara Tousley Hyde reports that she and Phil 
divide their year between Vero Beach, FL, and 
Saranac Lake, NY. This is a perfect arrangement for 
them, as their three children are distributed in both 
locations, with one grandchild in FL and one in 
the Adirondacks. * John and Marcey Lynn 
Krum celebrated their 50th anniversary a year ago 
June in Carmel, CA, where doctor daughter Debby 
lives. Debby s oldest daughter now attends Harvard. 
This July, Marcey entertained her French grand¬ 
children—Natalie (14) and Laura (9)—who flew in 
from Paris. These are the daughters of Katie, who 
met her husband in northern Thailand, where they 
communicated (courted?) via their second lan¬ 
guage—Japanese! The Krums later enjoyed the 
company of their three Swiss grandsons (14, 13, 
and 9), who were visiting for several days with their 
parents. (Next, says Marcey, she’ll go to a rest 
home!) Marcey underwent a lumpectomy a year 
ago and, after seven weeks of daily radiation, was 
back in the swing of things, including tennis and 
paddle. She also participated in the Race for the 
Cure, an inspiring and emotional experience. This 
is another personal account which underscores the 
importance of our annual ordeal, the 
mammogram.Thank you, Marcey! * Ann Curry 
Munier and husband Emile are enjoying retire¬ 
ment time with lakeshore activities at Governor’s 
Island on Lake Winnepesaukee in NH.They still 
have a ski retreat at Stratton Mountain in VT. In 


56 Middlebury Magazine 




















June, they entertained Lakes Region neighbors Bill 
and Hazel Godfrey Murphy and Pete ’44 and 
Barbara Busing Harris, in celebration of all 
three couples’ anniversaries.The Murphys are keep¬ 
ing alive a good New England tradition of placing 
only home-grown food on the table. “We grow 
peas and corn and just about any vegetable you can 
name!” # David and Joyce Hitchcock Hardy 
enjoy Ellsworth, ME, lakefront activities during the 
summer and community events at Colby-Sawyer 
College in New London, NH, during the 
winter. Since her husband had an appointment in 
Hanover, NH, Joyce was to join classmates on 
August 24 for the two-hour Golden Pond boat 
tour, which shows tourists where the movie was 
filmed, site by site, on Squam Lake. The tour guide 
also explains about the habitat and migratory histo¬ 
ry of the loons, a virtual symbol of Squam. Leaving 
from the Squam boat dock, next to Walters Basin 
Restaurant in downtown Holderness, the tour boat 
stops at Church Island where Mary Elizabeth 
Nordstrom was playing the organ on Sundays this 
summer from June 27 to September 5. She says 
that many Middlebury people have attended there 
through the years.This is Mary Elizabeths 10th sea¬ 
son as organist at Church Island (Chocorua Chapel 
Association, Holderness, NH).The other nine years 
were in the ’60s. She writes: “The congregation 
used to be 200, but since the movie it has doubled 
and docking is at a premium, so some boats have to 
drop anchor farther out. Sermons are by outstand¬ 
ing clergy from all over the U.S., different each 
Sunday. Barbara Busing Harris’s parents used to 
stay at Rockywold-Deephaven Camps at Squam 
Lake, from which one takes the 20-passenger 
launch.The organist takes the first trip at 9:30 
A.M. —with the pew sweepers and organ pumper.” 
We look forward to hearing details from Mary 
Elizabeth’s senior year roommate, Kay Craven, 
who was traveling in August and left regrets about 
missing the Squam Lake mini-gathering. # In 
April (too late for the summer issue), the “Sunset 
Beach Gang” met again for a week of pure enjoy¬ 
ment: Bill and Sheila Schmidt Rowland, Neal 
and Cindy Darby Westmoreland, Doug and 
Cam Campbell Shaw. Breezie Arey 
McGeehan, and Cas Caswell Jones. One morn¬ 
ing the men, all non-Middlebury, discovered that 
the people playing tennis on the next court were 
Bill and Jan Schongar Wagner, both Midd ’53.This 
led to an invitation to drinks that evening and a 
most enjoyable visit with a delightful couple—and, 
hopefully, a fourth for men’s tennis next year! # 
Your faithful correspondent Cam encourages 
everyone to be a little more weatherwise when set¬ 
ting out for a sail. “We capsized on Lake St. 
Catherine in a summer storm that came up really 
suddenly, and over we went in our small 
catboat! Wind, rain, thunder, and lightning! In ret¬ 
rospect, ’twas very exciting! We feel very fortunate 
to have survived that storm.” * Mary (Cas) 
Caswell Jones returned toVT in June to attend 
her youngest granddaughter’s graduation from high 
school in Burlington. We (Cas and Cam) met in 
Middlebury and visited the Center for the Arts and 
the new athletic building. While looking over the 
spacious new field house, Cas discovered her moth¬ 
ers 1912 basketball team picture on the wall! Cas 
took a trip to Alaska this summer. * Barbara 
Busing Harris wrote of attending Petes 55th 
Reunion with class headquarters in Gifford: “It was 
wonderful! The dorm has been renovated and has 
an elevator and nice, individual bathrooms gener¬ 
ously scattered about. Of course it is near Proctor 
and the bookstore, where 55 percent discounts 


were available on Middlebury items! It is also next 
to Mead Chapel, where Mr. Fanning is still playing 
the organ and conducting the alumni choir. A spe¬ 
cial plus for the Harrises was the fact that daughter 
Anne Harris Onion ’69 was also there for her 30th 
Reunion, son Peter ’74 for his 25th, and grand¬ 
daughter Megan ’00 was a student guide for the 
40th Reunion in Gifford. Megan loved meeting 
the alums and hearing their stories.The student 
guides wore neat Middlebury T-shirts with a large 
picture on the back inscribed with the words “Ask 
Me Anything.” As part of the Old Guard, we were 
entertained at the president’s house after convoca¬ 
tion. There were four members of the Class of’29 
attending their 70th Reunion. We may not all 
make that, but be sure to set your sights on 2001 
for our 55th!” 

Class Secretaries: Virginia Stowell 
James, 373 Reeds Gap Rd., North ford, 
CT 06472; and Philip Briggs, 40947 
N. 107th PL, Scottsdale, AZ 85262. 

Elizabeth Galloway Masterson, whom we called 
“Whirlaway” back at Midd, has been appointed an 
interim trustee of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial 
Foundation. Betty has been head of volunteers for 
projects at the Coolidge Foundation since 1993. 

She is also coordinator of volunteers for special 
events at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science 
in Woodstock. She still does volunteer taping for 
the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually 
Impaired. Betty and husband Jim retired toVT in 
1990. * Phyllis Hackley Foote is happy to 
announce the birth of her first granddaughter, 

Sarah Kaitlin, on March 2, 1998, to daughter Judith 
Mulligan of Portland, ME. # We regret to report 
the death of Janet Kraft West on May 1 and send 
the condolences of the class to her family. We’re 
glad she was with us for our 50th Reunion. ♦ 
Gordie ’49 and Alice Neef Perine were chosen 
honorary chairs of the seventh annual Vermont 
Symphony Orchestra’s pops concert this summer. 
One of the most highly anticipated events in 
Middlebury, the pops concert is held in Alumni 
Stadium, where picnicker/concert goers are treated 
to glorious music as night falls over the Green 
Mountains, culminating in the stirring “ 1812 
Overture” with fireworks lighting up the night sky. 
Gordie and Alice have been more active than ever 
in Middlebury since his retirement in 1994 and her 
retirement in 1988. They cochaired the 1998 
Addison County United Way Campaign and served 
for two years as cochairs of the “People for Porter” 
campaign leading to the expansion of the hospital 
and nursing home. Alice has also been a trustee of 
the Sheldon Museum and Shard Villa, while Gordie 
has served on the board of Home Heath and 
chaired its capital campaign. ★ Still in Holland, MI, 
Milt ’45 and Laura-Lee Hopkins Pike have a 
slight address change: 145 Columbia Ave., #757. # 
Pat Harvey Oehler recently “completed training 
as a docent at the Sacramento Zoo, a small zoo set 
in a park in the middle of Sacramento. Love it!” ♦ 
A summer gathering in Randolph,VT, was attend¬ 
ed by many who live or visit in the area, with 
Lynn Bruhn graciously inviting several to stay at 
her home when the travel distance precluded a 
one-day trip. Lynn reports taking joy in her puppy 
and seeing some progress in its training. Those of us 
who were teachers would advise: “Be firm, Lynn! 
Firm and consistent!” # Herb and Barbara Bates 
Lauterwasser (Bobbie) had a memorable 2 172- 
week tour in Europe last spring: Swiss Alps, moun¬ 
tains of Austria, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Lucerne, 



Did you know you can 
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while also benefiting as 
the principal grows? 


Many folks didn't... 
until they contacted 
Middlebury. We 
helped them convert 
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$2,000/year to $6,000 
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more than $6,000 
thereafter as the 
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Call Terry Mayo, Director 
of Trusts and Estates, at 
1 -802-443-5200 or email 
mayo@middlebury.edu 
and we will send you more 
details. 

No pressure, no timetable, 
just valuable information 
for your future. 



Fall 57 


Midd Connection 











What can compare to being together 50 years later? 
(see 1949 column) 

and Frankfurt. They especially enjoyed meetings 
with Herb’s relatives, even though Bobbie found 
her lack of fluency in German meant she smiled a 
lot but understood little! Bobbie also reported the 
birth of another granddaughter, Hannah Rose, on 
April 15. Congratulations! # Bill and Jeannette 
Atkins Louth were up on the Cape in the sum¬ 
mer, at their cottage in West Harwich. * An 
impromptu article on the wildflowers and wildlife 
of her own yard by Virginia Stowell James was 
chosen for printing in the quarterly Native Plants , 
published by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower 
Center, of which Virginia is a member. Her design 
was selected for various uses during the celebra¬ 
tion of her church’s 250th anniversary. For some 
church events, she has donned old-style clothing: 

“It felt funny to arrive dressed in a long, old-fash¬ 
ioned dress, black shoes and stockings, kid gloves, 
and a large black hat. A bit like becoming ones 
own grandmother.” She also chairs two educational 
honorary societies, but took a break to enjoy the 
cottage in Maine during midsummer. # Betsy 
Hornaday Fry has again raised the question of a 
class listing of our e-mail addresses to make for easy 
and rapid communication. Isn’t there someone who 
would volunteer to gather as many of these as can 
be obtained for the start of such a list? Give your 
name to Betsy or to one of your class secretaries 
listed at the top of this column. # We regret to 
report the May 1 death of Janet Kraft West. 
Condolences go to her family and friends. * Be 
sure to send class news to Jinny or Phil so that we 
can keep aware of the important events and activi¬ 
ties in one another’s lives. 

Class Secretaries: Daniel R. and Joan 
Tyler Gilbert, (medrg01@fnoravian.edu), 
3660 Walt Whitman Ln., Bethlehem, PA 
1801 7. 

Kudos to Patricia Prendergast Turner, who 

won the 1998 Service to Mankind award from the 
Monument Hill Sertoma Club in CO.The award 
recognized Pat for her service to thousands of citi¬ 
zens of the Tri-Lakes and El Paso County areas. In 
1990, Pat volunteered to help in the juvenile divi¬ 
sion in the district attorney’s office. Working more 
than 25 hours a week as a case manager, she was 
able to divert many young individuals away from 
the courts and a possible criminal record to more 
productive and worthwhile lives. Since 1992 she 
has been working in an innovative program called 
Kids Against Crime. To help children understand 
the seriousness of crime, Pat works with fifth 
graders, using real-life illustrations, video tapes, and 
workbooks to show the consequences resulting 
from violating the law. She conducts two-hour 
workshops two or three times a week in various 



schools. Pat also serves on many committees in St. 
Matthias Episcopal Church and gives of her time to 
the Book Buddies program. * Tom Johnson 
writes that he would like to see “an article on the 
College orchestra and Mr. Bennet.” He reports that 
“the concerts give much pleasure to us old grads 
living locally, as well as the entire community.” * 
Dan Gilbert reports: “A summer highlight for the 
Gilbert family was the June 26 wedding of 
youngest son Chris to Julie Moberg.The wedding 
took place at Christ Chapel on the campus of 
Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN, where 
Chris is an assoc, prof, of political science. The three 
other Gilbert sons—Dan Jr., Mike, and Karl—as 
well as granddaughter Victoria and grandson John, 
joined in the festivities. Gustavus Adolphus was hit 
hard by a tornado over a year ago but has made a 
remarkable recovery with the generous assistance of 
its alumni. God bless those alums!” 



Class Secretaries: Patricia Allen Guthrie, 
P.O. Box 1804, Wolfeboro, NH 03894; 
and Bob M. Gore,Jr., 60 Keenan Dr., 
Peterborough, NH 03458. 


Dave Thompson and I (Pat) want to thank every¬ 
one—and there are many—who helped make our 
50th Reunion gathering so wonderful. It all began 
with registration at Forest Hall, where Jane Alice 
Miller Brouwers was chair of the greeters. It was 
there we all received our Middlebury blue shirts to 
wear in the Reunion Parade and our class gifts— 
including four Middlebury glasses and a double 
pack of Middlebury playing cards with Old Chapel 
on them. Alice “Hotch” Hardie had arranged a 
wonderful memorabilia display in one of the beau¬ 
tifully redecorated Forest Hall lounges. Bob Seixas 
brought pictures from his Air Force experiences; 
Dave Thompson brought lots of photos and 
other Midd items: Barbara Earling Lindeberg 
brought some of her paintings; Willie Williams 
Wood brought a book written by Pat Thwaits 
Garcia's husband. Max; Willie’s husband, George, 
brought wood carvings; Barbie Knapp Bull 
brought books on her family genealogy; Gene 
Edgar Irons brought quilts she had made, and 
there were several memory albums with lots of pic¬ 
tures of our years at Middlebury. * Thursday 
evening we had a delicious informal dinner under a 
tent behind Forest Hall. After breakfast Friday 
morning, we all gathered near Old Chapel, where 
our class tree was planted. We held a memorial ser¬ 
vice, planned by Lee Adkins, in remembrance of 
the 72 deceased members of our class. From there 
the class traveled to Kirk Alumni Center for a class 
meeting with President McCardell, who presented 
each of us with a Middlebury pin and a Gamaliel 
Painter cane. It was a very touching thing to me. 
One interesting comment by John McCardell: “As 



Making plans for the 50th Reunion (see 1950) 


I was contemplating the presentation of these 
canes, something rang a familiar note. The year you 
graduated—1949—was the year I was born.” 
Needless to say, we all just roared with laughter. 
Lunch followed at Meeker House (former Sig Ep 
house), before afternoon activities. Gordie Perine 
organized golf. Barbara Buzz Myers White and 
Peter Fagg organized tennis. Rachel Stryker 
Smith and Bob Gore organized a hike. Lots of 
athletic participants, which speaks well for our 
physical prowess! Friday night we were all guests of 
President and Mrs. McCardell at their home. After 
cocktails on the deck we all adjourned for a buffet 
dinner in the tent on the lawn behind the house. 
Over the entire weekend, I can’t say enough about 
how friendly and warm John McCardell was. We 
should all be thankful that Middlebury College is 
so fortunate to have a president of his caliber! # 

On Saturday was the Reunion Parade, and we were 
the honored class, last to enter Mead chapel. Quite 
a thrilling moment. I’m proud of you all. We won 
the McCullough Cup, given to the class with-the 
highest percentage of alumni returning for reunion, 
and the Armand N. LaFlamme ’37 Cup, for the 
highest participation in reunion giving, with 90 
percent of our class members contributing. Our 
thanks to Liz Van Splinter Thomson and 
Charlie Puksta for a great job on the fund-rais¬ 
ing. Thank you! Also we all can be very proud of 
Rachel Adkins Platt, who received an Alumni 
Plaque Award for her outstanding service to the 
College.Yay, Rachel! # Saturday evening was our 
banquet, with Kyle Prescott heading the commit¬ 
tee. Kyle did a super job and it was a wonderful 
night. Master of Ceremonies Bob Seixas brought 
along two of his musician friends, so we had won¬ 
derful music. Bob brought a large song sheet of 
Middlebury songs and other songs that were popu¬ 
lar when we were in school and we had a fun sing- 
along. Dave and I were among the last people to 
leave at about midnight. Sunday was the finale. 

After chapel, a 50th farewell brunch was held 
behind Forest Hall under our tent. To all who 
came, I hope you had as good a time as David and 
I did. For those who were unable to be there, we 
missed you. As Spencer Wright put it: "Makes 
one feel younger, seeing all those familiar faces!” 
And last, but not least. Bob Gore has agreed to 
serve as co-class secretary for the men of the class. 
Thank you, Bob! 

Class Secretaries: Ms. Barbara J. Parker 
(parkeb@idt.net), 13 Burnham Pi, Fair 
Lawn, NJ 07410 (fax 201/475-1545); 
and Ms. Barl)ara Kraft Packer (l)ar- 
bkraft@ciol.com), 48 Sunset Dr., Summit, NJ 07901. 

We’re getting in gear for reunion! At a June plan¬ 
ning meeting, members of the gift committee and 
yearbook committee worked hard at Kirk Alumni 
Center. All contributed to planning social events, 
working on our yearbook, and strategizing for 
fund-raising for our big 50th. Spouses Sondra Kay, 
Bob Kingsland,Tom Moser,Tod Packer, and Dick 
Young joined us for dinner. Pictured at Fire A Ice 
were Irv Meeker, Rufus Cushman, Ginny 
Ringo Cleary, Sid Kay, Sondra Kay, Kathy Pell 
Meeker, Lura Hallett Smith, Anna Sherwood 
Young, Dave Dale, Carol Carlton Hentz, Elbe 
Flett Kingsland, Ginny Hardy Moser, Barbara 
Kraft Packer, Jackie Brooks Davison, John 
Irons, and Fred Neuberger. We will be staying at 
Forest Hall—and wait til you see Bicentennial 
Hall! It is enormous! # We need your help in find¬ 
ing lost classmates. William and Diane Brehm 



5 8 Middlebury Magazine 










Mehlbach have been located in CO, living 
between Denver and Boulder. The Navy sent them 
there years ago and they fell in love with the state. 
And Richard Shenier, who went on to MIT after 
two years, has been found in East Williston, NY. * 
Frank McNamee, our reunion social cochair, had 
to have back surgery. He is going to rehab faithfully 
and feels fairly well, with a hip replacement and 
surgery on his spinal discs. He’s impatient to get 
back to tennis, squash, and golf John O’Connor 
stopped in to see him on his way back to CT from 
FL. # Social co-chair and class secretary Barbara 
Parker is also recuperating nicely from surgery, 
with the aid of her daughter. # Jinny Orrall 
Albert has concerns about getting to reunion. Her 
husband, Dean, has had several strokes and is suffer¬ 
ing from Parkinsons, and Jinny has converted her 
home to care for him herself. Jinny, we hope that 
you can make arrangements to join us in June. # 
Bett Carroll Notter and husband George have 
moved from an apartment in the center of DC to 
suburban MD. She is now practically across the 
street from her office. # We regret to report the 
death of John R. Lane on March 9. We send con¬ 
dolences to his family, especially his brother, 

Thomas W. Lane ’51. John was a chemistry major 
from Waterbury, CT, and a member of Alpha Tau 
Omega. A memorial appeared in the summer issue. 
♦ Chuck Mutti wrote in response to the call for 
e-mail addresses. (His is ymutti@aol.com.) Since 
their marriage in March 1982, Chuck and wife 
Lonnie have lived in Westchester County (NY), 
Vero Beach (FL), and Hilton Head (SC); they are 
now in Saratoga County in upstate NY. They have 
seen Betty and Corky Elwell, when they visited 
Hilton Head, and Jane and A1 Dragone at Shirley 
and Ray Ablondi’s (‘52) house on Hilton Head. * 
Pat Wulp is involved with the League ofWomen 
Voters in MI, as Barb Kraft is in NJ. Now that Pat 
is retired, she also has time to plan a memorial gar¬ 
den at her church, volunteer at the HIV/AIDS 
Resource Center, and enjoy AAUW classic books 
and Great Decisions groups. She and Kraftie both 
recommend Jack Miles’s book, God, A Biography. # 
Finally, congratulations to newlyweds Reg and 
Carol Hentz Spooner. After working for the past 
year to help cut brush and create trails in an 80- 
acre area known as Spirit and Nature, Carol and 
Reg were the first to be married there on August 
8, in the Sacred Circle. Spirit and Nature is located 
near the Robert Frost Trail in Ripton. 

Class Secretaries: Meg Curry Gregg 
(Mrs. Donald P), 21 Mead Rd., 

Armonk, NY 10504; and James D. 

Ross, 1019 CiderMill Rd., Cornwall , 

VT 05753. 

Congratulations to Dr. Paul Cochrane, who is the 
1999 recipient of the Distinguished Citizen Award 
of the Boy Scouts of America Nashua Valley 
Council. A dinner held in his honor on June 1 at 
SI 25 a plate benefited thousands of Boy Scouts in 
32 communities throughout his Fitchburg, MA, 
region. The chair of the event summed it up well: 
“Dr. Cochrane has given 40 years of dedicated ser¬ 
vice to his area. His vigorous commitment to 
Burbank Hospital and the community have been 
expressed not only in terms of his medical practice, 
but also in his vital role as a member of the newly 
restructured UMass Memorial/HealthAlliance 
board of trustees and his involvement on many 
local boards. He is a very compassionate doctor and 
certainly deserving of this very prestigious award.” 
Paul started his family practice in Fitchburg in 1958 



and he is also the physician of the Fitchburg High 
School football team. He and wife Judy have three 
children—son Lee ’75, daughter Pam, and daughter 
Kim Cochrane Cosgrove ’83—and six grandchil¬ 
dren. * When the Rev. Philip Clarke arrived at 
Park Avenue United Methodist Church in 
Manhattan in 1956, there were only about 25 
members, the building was in disrepair, and there 
was no money. When he retired this June, there 
were 600 members, a building beautifully restored, 
and a healthy financial statement (including a trust 
of $9 million to support needy churches in NYC 
and help the poor).The church has also become 
very diverse. It’s a tribute to Phil’s ministry that he 
served this church for 43 years, when the typical 
stint for Methodist clergy is five to eight years at a 
single church. According to a piece in the Wall 
Street Journal , Phil cites two reasons for this longevi¬ 
ty: “One, his mobile congregation changed con¬ 
stantly, so it was like getting a new church every 
five years. And two,‘I learned to keep a low profile 
around bishops.’” * We have news from Ildara 
(Ily) Elmore Klee, who has been teaching 
Spanish courses at Fairfield Univ. and Sacred Heart 
Univ. in CT. She recently moved to a condo in 
Bridgeport. Ily and Fred Klee ’53, who were 
divorced in 1980, are on amicable terms. Their 
daughter and her two sons live in Stratford; another 
son and daughter are in San Antonio. Ily worked 
for Save the Children for a number of years and 
also started her own business, Language Services, 
offering translations, tutoring, and word processing 
in English, Spanish, or French. Good to hear from 
you, Ily. # In May, Don and Meg Curry Gregg 
were joint speakers at the annual meeting of the 
Brattleboro,VT, branch of the American Assoc, of 
Univ. Women in May. They spoke of their experi¬ 
ences in Saipan, Japan, Burma, Korea, and 
Washington, DC, while Don served in the CIA, as 
national security adviser to VP George Bush, and as 
ambassador to Korea. Now chairing the board of 
the Korea Society in NYC, Don is active in sup¬ 
port of Korean-American business, cultural, and 
educational projects. During the talk, Meg discussed 
family life overseas, her work with international 
women’s groups, and her role as embassy hostess. A 
special treat was the attendance of Martha Jane 
O’Brien Fenn (who helped organize the event), 
Anne Drysdale Connington, and Helen Reid 
Gilmore. 


52 


02557. 


Class Secretaries: Carol Whitham 
Brewster, Rond IRI.. P.O. Box 296, 
Manchester, ME 04351; and Charles A. 
Ratte, P.O. Box 3446, Oak Bluffs, MA 


Sid Hammond (sidney.hammond@valley.net) has 
moved back to Hartland,VT, where he has owned 
a farmhouse and 150 acres for more than 40 years. 
He and wife Clara raised six children there before 
moving to Hanover, NH, to be nearer his Ready- 
Mix concrete plant. Sid lost his wife as a result of 
injuries suffered in an auto accident in 1986. Now 
retired, he busies himself maintaining the farm and 
the hiking and skiing trails on his property, which 
he uses “as the spirit moves me.” Sid continues his 
45-year hobby of beekeeping, producing 1,100 
pounds of honey per summer season to share with 
family, friends, and neighbors. Sid has been active in 
local and state politics, serving several years in the 
Vermont House of Representatives in the early 
’80s. He also served on the board of the Windsor, 
VT, hospital. * Lucy Lee Frisbee writes “Our 
life falls into a definite pattern of work, community 


service, and play!”The Frisbees work 10 months in 
Delhi, NY, in the northern Catskills, producing 
maple syrup (they ship!), making hay, tending 11 
apartments and 20 Hereford;. They serve on boards 
and committees for hospital, church, concerts, and 
beautification.Then they play for two months in 
S. W. FL (the Englewood area, south of Sarasota), 
enjoying golf, fishing, biking, beaching, and eating 
seafood. “Woven into this pattern are our three sons 
and families, who generously share their lives with 
us,” Lucy adds. Their sons live in Yardley, PA; 
Reston,VA; and Delhi, NY. # Skip ’54 and Janet 
Bogard Phinney have moved from Reading, MA 
to Jamaica Plain, MA.Twin grandchildren blessed 
them with an Easter Sunday arrival, born to their 
elder son and his wife. ♦ Sally Baldwin Utiger 
had a busy spring officiating collegiate tennis 
matches.Then she planned to work on her own 
game in time for the Senior Nationals, “as long as 
they don’t conflict with grandparenting-—first 
things first!” * Summer heat brought the Brewster 
family to Lake Cobbosseconte in Manchester, ME, 
where Pat and Carol Whitham Brewsters farm¬ 
house stretched to fit six grandchildren (ages 7, 6, 5, 
4, 1 1/2, and 1) and their four parents. Most of the 



Meg Curry Gregg, Helen Reid Gilmore, Anne 
Drysdale Connington, and Martha Jane O'Brien 
Fenn, all '51, in Brattlehoro (see 1951 column) 

time was spent in the lake and we were swimming 
our Chesapeake Bay retriever, instead of walking 
her. Next year’s family reunions will have to be 
held in Brittany, France, where son Toby and wife 
Becca and their three small sons will live during his 
year of teaching there. Son Seth was 54th among 
the 1,100 athletes in the “Escape from Alcatraz” 
triathlon held last June in San Francisco. Not bad 
for a 39-year-old Portland, ME, attorney, who was 
once on the U.S. Olympic Pentathlon Training 
Team. * Chuck Ratte reports: Jim Hutchinson 
called recently to wish Judy and me well in our 
new adventures, relocating fromVT to MA and 
renovating a 100-year-old Vineyard farmhouse. 
Hutch is a great communicator and often calls a 
friend “out of the blue.” We visited Hutch and 
Hayes a few years ago on our way to see friends in 
Lexington, KY. While we were there, Hutch said 
“Let’s call Howie Rogers ’53 in CA—I bet you 
haven’t talked to him in 40 years.” He was right—I 
hadn’t. Howie recognized my voice right off and 
we had a great chat. Hutch is retired from Nestle, 
but tells me he gets called on once in a while to 
help them out with odd tasks. Now Hutch is a 
NASCAR racing fan and there is a big track near 
his home in eastern TN. So if you go to the 
NASCAR races in Johnson City,TN, and see a big 
rabbit advertising Nestles Quik, approach it with 
your hand outstretched and say,“Hi, Hutch—How 
ya doing!” * John V. Emerson wrote me a nice 
letter to share with classmates. John has retired and 


Fail 59 


Midd Connection 




















moved to a smaller home—easier to care for, elimi¬ 
nating all ladders to paint second stories, and fewer 
stairs to sweep or fall down. Smart move, John.The 
house also makes life simpler so he and wife 
Bettina and their disabled adult child can travel and 
not worry about pipes freezing in a big house. The 
Emersons recently visited sunny FL and 
Disneyland. In May they were traveling to Italy and 
Greece. John spent time in Germany with the 
armed forces after Middlebury graduadon, then 
completed a masters in architecture at the Boston 
Architectural Center. He worked a short rime for 
the Salem (MA) Redevelopment Authority. He has 
worked for himself or in partnerships for most of 
his career. John hopes to make it to our big 50th 
Reunion. Send me a recent photo, John.The idea 
has already been sparked by our reunion chairs, 
Billy Trask and Ruth Shonyo. # The sympathy 
of the class goes to Margaret Nasmith Wedge, 
whose husband, George, died on June 5. * We 
also regret to report the recent death of Joseph 
LaTaille and send the condolences of the class to 
his family. 


53 


Class Secretaries: Richard T. Allen 
(rtallen@bluecrab.org), P.O. Box 172, 
Oxford, MD 21654; and Mrs. Joseph 
W~S. Danis, Jr. (Ann Golding) 
(sensei@yalley.net), P.O. Box 3, The Ridge, Oiford, NH 
03777. 


Laura Chapman Rico went to her 50th high 
school reunion in NC and is looking forward to 
our 50th in 2003. On the same trip, she visited her 
sisters in VT and NY, and had a good visit with Pat 
Heap Rockwell. She also attended a meeting of 
professional graduates in CA. Laura returned to 
Aniak, AK, this summer for vacation Bible school. 
She was also there for the reburial of skeletal 
remains repatriated from the Museum of Natural 
History in NYC. * The cochairs of this seasons 
United Way of Addison County Campaign have 
been announced and they are none other than Jim 
’51 and Ann McGinley Ross. Ann was the 
cofounder of the United Fund of Cornwall, now 
the United Way of Addison County, 30 years ago. 
Ann spent 16 years teaching in Middlebury area 
schools, then she was the director of the Children’s 
Art Exchange for four years. Her list of responsible 
leadership positions continues to grow: Cornwall 
Girl Scout Troop leader, Green Mountain Fiddlers’ 
Parents chair, Middlebury AAUW president, 
Middlebury Recycling Committee secretary, 
Addison County CROP Walk chair, Frog Hollow 
Craft Center board, and Children s Art Exchange 
board. At the moment, she is serving as treasurer of 
the Vermont Alliance for Arts Education and advis¬ 
er of the Children’s Art Exchange, in addition to 
her duties for United Way. Of course she is also 
involved with the Champlain Valley Unitarian 
Universalist Society and volunteers for Meals on 
Wheels. 


weekend. John and Melissa, our student hosts, were 
bright, cheerful, and accommodating, making the 
“Chat” a perfect home away from home. Friday 
arrivals wandered up to Proctor Terrace for a Taste 
ofVermont buffet dinner. Some then went on to a 
chapel concert and then to McCullough s new stu¬ 
dent center for a cabaret and jazz trio. Saturday 
morning dawned clear, sunny, and warm (80 
degrees).The Reunion Parade to Convocation in 
Mead Chapel proceeded up the hill at 10:30, all of 
us aided by our new Gamaliel Painter canes, given 
by the College to all reuning classes. Lunch on 
Proctor Terrace was followed by a large variety of 
activities. The evening started with cocktails in the 
lovely Chat drawing room (also 80 degrees), fol¬ 
lowed by dinner, a few speeches, and lots of con¬ 
versations. Sunday, yours truly (Whit) and Karol 
Baldwin Teiko sang in the Alumni Choir at the 
chapel service (not many dry eyes after the Seven¬ 
fold Amen), then many adjourned to Bob and 
Betsy Heath ’58 Gleason’s charming home for a 
farewell brunch. Gus Boardman ended up being 
master of ceremonies, since Bill Skiff couldn’t 
come at the last moment. Golf scores seemed to 
have gotten lost (were they that bad?) so he called 
on Pete Simonson to present tennis prizes to 
Chris Van Curan and Lannie Osborn Gartner. 

I agreed to do one LAST stint as class secretary and 
Tom Ryan was persuaded to join me. He 
announced at the dinner that if we don’t hear from 
you, we will start making up news, so start those 
letters or e-mails coming! Our class made a 
S319,161 contribution to the Annual Fund, with 
63 percent participation, and we’re gunning for 
more participation in 2004. Five classmates came 
back to a reunion for the first time ever and 
announced they won’t miss another one. As we age, 
I’m finding great satisfaction in renewing old 
friendships, and I felt that others were experiencing 
the same pleasure. Many, many thanks to Gus and 
Sally Robinson Boardman. who chaired the 
45th.They did a fabulous job! I’ll save the news I 
dragged out of some of you for a future column. It 
was really good to see everybody. Until we visit 
again, stay involved, stay active! Tom wondered if 
we should mention being carried from bosky dell 
to sylvan glade in sedan chairs on the shoulders of 
joyful graduating seniors? Or about the eight pro¬ 
fessional sky divers, trailing blue and white smoke, 
who landed in our honor in front of Mead 
Chapel? Or that the catered brunch at the Gleasons 
was flown in from two of New York’s more famous 
establishments and Bill’s Barbecue of Kerrville,TX? 
Or should this just be a little secret among the 90 
of us? 


55 


Class Secretaries: Katherine Hughes non 
Hartz (jnhartz@niindspring.com), 111 
E. Second St., New York, NY 10009 
(212/982-7932); and Frank E. 
Punderson,Jr. (fepund@aol.com), 1209 Cider Mill Rd., 
Middlebury, VT 05753. 


54 


Class Secretaries: Mrs. Robert B. 
Nickerson (Nancy Whittemorc) 
(forger@prodigy.net), 4 Osprey Ln., 
Mystic, CT 06355; and Mr. Tom Ryan 
(trn@aol.com), 3 Knipp Rd., Houston TX 77024. 


What an absolutely incredible weekend in the 
Green Mountains ofVermont! Those of you who 
stayed home, start planning for the 50th, because 
we’ve ordered more of the same weather for 2004! 
Sixty-three classmates were joined by 27 spouses 
and friends at the Chateau for an activity-packed 


We can’t believe it either, but it really is time for 
our 45th Reunion! Mark your calendar: Reunion 
2000, June 2-4, promises to be the best one ever— 
and we don’t want to miss you! Vermont in June is 
beautiful and our reunion—in conjunction with 
the College’s Bicentennial Celebration—virtually 
guarantees a great weekend back on campus. 
Frank Punderson will serve as the class social 
chair, so send him your ideas to help make this 
reunion even more special than the last. 


WHAT THEY'D DO 
DIFFERENTLY IF THEY 
COULD 

"DO IT ALL AGAIN...." 


“Take a Shakespeare course from Paul 
Cubeta, a course from ‘Beowulf’ Brown, 
and history from Professor Tillinghast, 
more art courses from Arthur Healey.” 

—Bill Simpson ’58 
Oakland, CA 

“Nothing, really—I have always felt— 
and still do—that my courses and 
friendships prepared me very very well 
for teaching and family. My junior year 
in France was excellent. 

—Eleanor Flandreau Josset ’51 
M.A. French, ’52 
Bridport,VT 

“I would be a more conscientious 
student, and I would avoid some of the 
silly courses I took.” 

—Terry Twichell ’59 
Ojai, CA 

“Take better advantage of the wonderful, 
natural environment.” 

—-John Kerney ’61 
Newtown, PA 

“I probably would not be admitted, as 
it is almost impossible to gain admission 
due to the school’s current ‘swimsuit 
rating’ by US News.” 

—John Vecchiolla ’64 
Greenwich, CT 

“I would study some art history and 
philosophy, maybe some American 
Literature—in addition to all the lan¬ 
guages and history. I dream of having 
another year as an undergraduate” 

—Ann Fowler LaBerge ’65 
Blacksburg, VA 

“Enter as a freshman (I was a transfer), 
spend a semester or year suidying 
abroad, adventure outside my major 
more often, take a biology class, do 
more hiking, eat more sticky buns (!), 
study a foreign language.” 

—Charlotte Kaplinka Landon 76 
White Plains, NY 


60 Middlebury Magazine 

























Class Secretaries: John Chase, 2000 
Sage Canyon Rd., Si. Helena, CA 
94574;Joan MacKinnon Houghton 
(jinackho@aol.com), 422 Taylor PI., 
Ithaca, NY 14850; and Lee Goodrich Tupman 
(etlgt@aol.corn), 309 Cloverway Dr., Alexandria, VA 
22314. 

GE metallurgist Mark Benz has been elected to 
the National Academy of Engineering, one of the 
highest professional distinctions accorded an engi¬ 
neer. He was cited by the academy “for pioneering 
and sustained contributions in metallurgy, ranging 
from the iron-carbon system to nuclear Riel 
cladding, superalloys, and superconductors.” His 
amazing career at GE, which began in 1961, has 
included many honors and awards. He made major 
contributions to GE’s revolutionary MRT 
(Magnetic Resonance-guided Therapy), which 
allows a physician to stand over and work on a 
patient being scanned by an MRI. During his 
Coolidge Fellowship years (1996-98), he focused 
on global research of “Materials for MRI Medical 
Imaging Systems” and “Preparation of Ultra-clean 
Nickel-base and Titanium-base Alloys by Innovative 
Extensions of ESR Technology.” During this same 
period, he was appointed a visiting scholar at 
Middlebury. # Father Ronald C. Lawson, a priest 
of the Montreal Archdiocese and chaplain with the 
U.S. Dept.. ofVeterans Affairs, has been promoted 
to the position of associate director of chaplain ser¬ 
vice at the national level. In this new responsibility, 
he is chief consultant to the more than 300 Roman 
Catholic priests employed across the U.S. in various 
medical centers of the Dept. ofVeterans Affairs. He 
is also chief coordinator for the chaplain services of 
all theVA medical centers in New England, NY, 

PA, NJ, DE, MD,VA,WV, and DC. * Our restless 
biographer is at work once again. Lyman 
Gilmore says he’s found yet another unknown, 
dead, white, male poet to chronicle. * “Even with 
coaching from Rollie Schopp, the pressure was 
too great for the team of Bob Vuillet and Mike 
Philbin.They were badly beaten by Karl 
Brautigam and John Hoops at the Columbia 
Country Club this July. Karl and John won so 
much prize money, that they decided to take a trip 
to Alaska.” At least this is the story according to 
John Hoops. # After 44 years, former roommates 
Marvin C. “Kip” Cheney and John Chase 
finally got together in northern CA. Kip departed 
Middlebury in 1955 for the Univ. of MI as part of 
a dual degree program. Now active as a consultant 
in the wind energy business, he splits his time 
between Palm Springs and a residence in CT. Kip 
brought with him a photo album (circa 1952-55) 
with wonderful memories of the people of the 
Class of ’56. Before such treasures are lost forever, 
copies should be made for bulletin board display. A 
digital scanner will enlarge snapshots inexpensively. 
Please send copies to any of the class secretaries and 
we’ll mount a display for our next reunion in 2001. 

Class Secretaries: Polly Pitcher Gabriel 
(jenryg@procker.com), 120 Huntington 
Rd., Hadley, MA 01035; and Heather 
Hamilton Robinson 
(crobinson@jtop.monad.net), P.O. Box 3141, 
Peterborough, NH 03458. 

Lee Hall AJbern and Gail Parsell Beckett and 

their husbands, Bob and Peter, spent three'weeks in 
January exploring the wonders of the North and 
South Islands of New Zealand. Stopping in CA on 
their way home, Lee and Bob received a very spe¬ 




cial welcome. Their newest grandchild (their fifth) 
arrived on January 29. The American Society for 
Testing and Materials (ASTM) recently presented 
Sheldon Dean with the 1998 Francis L. LaQue 
Memorial Award for significant contributions in 
the field of corrosion testing and evaluation. 
Sheldon is a researcher with Air Products and 
Chemicals, Inc., in Allentown, PA, where he lives 
with wife Linda Durfee Dean ’58. ★ John 
Middleton participated in a panel discussion about 
reporting the news in Southbury, CT, last spring. 
John has been editor of the Heritage Villager news¬ 
paper in Southbury for 22 years. # Now retired as 
an administrator for the International Tennis 
Federation, Kendall Farrar, was running for a 
place on the Orleans, M A, Board of Selectman last 
spring. Kendall is a member of the Orleans Citizens 
Forum and the Association for Preservation of 
Cape Cod. 

Class Secretaries: Stephanie Eaton, 243 
Pleasant St., Littleton, NH 03561; 
Joseph E. Mohbat (jmohbat@aol.com), 
551 Pacific St., Brooklyn, NY 11217; 
and Ann Parnie Ormsbee, 1699 Candelero Ct., Walnut 
Creek, CA 94598. 

Each Middlebur}' Magazine includes a pull-out card 
for your communication convenience. Remove it, 
fill it out, and put it in the mail. We need to hear 
from you! 

Class Secretaries: Nancy McKnight 
Smith (nrncks@chesapeake.net), PO. Box 
349, Prince Frederick, MD 20678; and 
Don Woodworth (dewoody 13@Jiotmail. 
com), 32 Merritt Rd., S. Glens Falls, NY 12803. 

Retiring class secretary Byron Koh reports: Our 
40th Reunion was a remarkable one for several 
reasons. Our turnout was impressively high (118 
class members—67 percent of the class). We 
received the Raymond A. Ablondi ’52 Cup for the 
largest reunion class gift ever presented to the 
College (more than $7 million from 63 percent of 
the class). We also received the Gordon C. Perine 
’49 Award (to the reunion class other than the 25th 
and 50th with the greatest increase in the class gift). 
Again, we have two class presidents: Pete Erbe and 
Anne Martin Hartmann. Classmates who 
deserve more thanks include reunion chairs Roger 
Miller and Ann Martin Hartmann: past class 
presidents Granthia Lavery Preston and Pete 
Erbe. One highlight of the weekend was the canoe 
trip in perfect weather, with 42 of us in 13 canoes 
starting from the covered bridge and paddling three 
or four miles down Otter Creek toward 
Middlebury. This flawless trip was organized by 
Hilton Bicknell. At the class dinner, Bick made 
the following trip awards:The Teamwork/Helpers 
Award to Bob Luce, John Fay, Lester 
McDowell, and Bill Hahn. Shirley Manchester 
McDowell was cited for her trip alone in a kayak. 
The “Best Legs” went to George Finch. Tammy 
Kuebler won the “Queen of the Nile” award; 

Noel Casely Locke was the “Most Sophisticated 
Dressed Lady.” Bick thanked the class for its support 
over the years that finally brought him home from 
the Vietnam War. # The class dinner was in a large 
tent behind the former Sig Ep house (now 
Meeker), while the full moon rose over the moun¬ 
tains. Chaplain Scott and Prof. Pardon Tillinghast 
were there. Barry Croland. again our master of 
ceremonies, cited Harry Hisang and wife Nancy 
as those who had traveled farthest to attend—from 





Downstream with y 59ers Linda Brewster Jackson, 
Dieter van der Bent, and George Jackson (see 1959 
column) 

Hong Kong. # The 40th Reunion Newsletter has 
many details about our classmates. One item that 
didn’t make it into the Newsletter was about Dan 
Kirby, who has been retired for four years from a 
career in banking with Fuji and then Barclay 
Banks. When Dan met his wife in Japan, she could 
not speak English, but he spoke Japanese. Their 
daughter,Victoria, is now 26. A gardener and fly 
fisherman who ties his own flies, Dan calls himself 
a “silly old man, who tries to do as little as possi¬ 
ble.” # Teaching at Boise State Univ. for 30 years, 
Charles Davis specializes in the British novel. He 
teaches a humanities course on television, serves on 
the board of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and is 
treasurer of the Writer’s Project. # Someone asked 
if the cookies at the class dinner were “Joe 
Froggers,” made by David Percival. # Earla and 
Don Woodworth, who have three Middlebury 
offspring, attended reunion along with youngest 
son Gordon ’84, who was there for his 15th 
Reunion. Gordon is sports information director at 
UVM. Son Greg is an attorney in Portland, ME; 
daughter Sue coordinates campus ministries at 
Hartwick and Oneonta State. * Paul Schosberg 
has been chief of staff for two congressmen. * A 
personal highlight of reunion was our stay at 
Judith’s Garden, a delightful bed and breakfast run 
by Richard Conrad and wife Judith Irven in 
Goshen,VT. Fran and I enjoyed the room (there are 
three guest rooms), our hosts, the house, the walks, 
the extraordinary breakfasts, and the gardens. Fran 
and I—along with Nancy and Harry Hsiang 
(who also stayed there)—saw a moose in their small 
pond! After seeing many of our male classmates at 
reunion, I was struck by how much weight has 
been shed since 1959. We are all healthier and bet¬ 
ter looking. # Terry Twichell became a grandfa¬ 
ther for the first time last October, when a son was 
born to his son. In the spring he became a grandfa¬ 
ther once again with the birth of a daughter to his 
daughter, Molly Twichell Perry (M.A. Spanish ’92). 
Molly teaches Spanish atThacher School (Ojai, 
CA), where Terry is an administrator. * Phil and 
Pam Moyer ’69 Buley are enjoying retirement 
with their “annual February break in DC, catching 
up on the latest at the National, Renwick, and 
Corcoran Galleries.”Their daughter was married in 
May, then “a week in Hong Kong soaking up the 
contrasting culture. After four days at home (mow¬ 
ing and laundering!) it was two weeks in Morocco. 
Now it’s time to travel in the U.S. to see our sons, 
wherever they are settled by fall.” # John 
Medici —an editor-translator at Chemical Abstracts 
Service in Columbus, OH—swims competitively, 
speaks four languages, and competes in triathlons. 


Fall 61 


Midd Connection 



















In addition, he has collected minerals, gemstones, 
and fossils since 1964, with several of his finds end¬ 
ing up at the Smithsonian Institution and the 
Cincinnati Museum of Natural History. Besides 
supplying him with adventures, his collecting has 
financed the college educations of sons Jay (34), 
Eric (32), and Brett (30). In September 1998,John 
finished first in his age bracket at the Miss America 
Pageant Swim in Atlantic City, NJ, a 1.5-mile 
ocean swim. In the months prior, he won three 
events at the OH Masters championships, finished 
in the top 10 in every event at the Masters short- 
course championships, won his age group at the 
Delaware County Triathlon, won seven medals 
from the Masters long-course championships in Ft. 
Lauderdale, FL, and qualified for this Octobers 
Senior Olympics in triathlon and most swimming 
events. However, he was not likely to compete in 
the Senior Olympics: “I just don’t have the time to 
work out.” Sounds like a busy guy. ♦ Our new 
class secretaries are Nancy McKnight Smith and 
Don Woodworth. I am sure that Nancy and Don 
will enjoy their terms. As Granthia said at the din¬ 
ner, working with the College is a joy. I hope that 
all of us will attend the 45th Reunion, for all the 
obvious reasons and one that I had not thought of. 
As Aliceanne Britian Griffin observed, “Where 
else are you going to find so many people of your 
own age?” And where else would there be so many 
people of your own age with whom you have such 
a significant shared history? 

Class Secretaries: Jean Seeler (jean- 
dave@miinispring.com), 5016 Pinnacle 
Dr., Oldsmar, FL 34677; Rich 
Wilkinson (moviejhope@aol.com), 992 
Sherwood Forest Rd., Annapolis, MD 21401; and Jan 
Fisher Barstad, 2107 S. Ventura Dr.,Tempe,AZ 
85282. 

Bill Stritzler, owner and managing director of 
Smugglers’ Notch Resort, has been appointed to 
the board ofVT Public Television. * Tim Smith 
and wife Anne are retired and living in Craftsbury 
Common,VT, where they rebuilt a 130-year-old 
house. Last winter Tim taught x-country skiing and 
coached a high school team (at age 60). Last spring 
they sailed their boat in the Caribbean. # Penny 
Pitou was in the news recently when former 
recipients of scholarships from the Lakes Region 
Scholarship Foundation (LRSF) got together in 
Laconia, NH, to share their success stories. Penny 
said she would not have been able to go to 
Middlebury without the support she received from 
the LRSF, which has awarded $1,755,000 in schol¬ 
arships since 1956. Penny owns her own travel 
agency in Laconia. * Gail “Pug” Smith Bieger 
e-mailed from the Netherlands, where she is still a 
medical translator. She gets to the states regularly to 
visit her mother. She and husband Rob have trav¬ 
eled extensively, to places such as Central Asia, 
China, Guatemala, India, and South Africa.Their 
plans for 2000 include Jordan and Syria. ♦ Lee 
(Leon) Vancini, of Johns Island, SC, celebrated his 
big six—O last fall by taking both sons to Ireland for 
a golf holiday. Actually, it was more of an endurance 
test, as they played seven courses in eight days. Pres. 
Clinton tried to bump them from Ballybunion on 
HIS day, but Lee and the boys completed their 
round before his tee time. Last November Lee 
spent time in Egypt and the UK on airport finan¬ 
cial consulting assignments. His firm is rapidly 
becoming a recognized investment banker to that 
industry. In May he made another trip to London, 
combining business and pleasure. # Polly Johnson 



Stephens, of Concord, MA, works in human 
resources for what became Corning OCA after 
their acquisition by Corning Inc. two years ago. She 
has watched the company go from 50 to 250 
employees and still growing, doesn’t see retirement 
in the near future, and takes courses in human 
resources management at Bentley College. She stays 
in touch with Helen Schlaufman Lang and 
Sandra Feldmann Williamson. They hope to get 
together one of these days. (How about reunion 
2000?) # After living in parsonages for 35 years, 
John and Mary Jane Bliss Swanson own their 
first home in Raymond, ME.They enjoy the end¬ 
less landscaping possibilities and the freedom retire¬ 
ment has given them. MJ works three spring 
months at a greenhouse and puts most of her earn¬ 
ings into plants. Their fourth graduated from col¬ 
lege in May 1997, allowing them time and money 
to travel—HI this year, they hope. For the June 
wedding of their second Midd kid, Karla ’89, MJ 
made the wedding dress and the dress for the maid 
of honor, youngest daughter Shelley. * Caroline 
Smith Freeman, of Somerville, MA, has a newish 
job: information technology manager for PinPoint 
Corp., Bedford and Burlington, MA. PinPoint is 
the leading provider in the new product category 
of Local Positioning Systems. Using digital, spread 
spectrum radio frequency technology, they can help 
you locate, track, and secure your company’s valu¬ 
able assets and personnel. * Judy Neese Woods 
and Jean Maclnnes got together for breakfast 
when Jean made her annual trip from Bozeman, 
MT, to Albuquerque, NM, to visit friends. In June, 
Judy traveled to Prague and Budapest. Husband 
Bob has been flying his homebuilt Cyote experi¬ 
mental airplane. Still undecided about retirement, 
Judy continues teaching English in high school and 
is extra busy as area president of the International 
Reading Assoc. * Linda Sharp Cooper and hus¬ 
band Dick Hevly hope to make it to reunion in 
2000. Linda’s eldest son, Jim Cooper and family, 
moved from HI to Houston, making it easier for 
Linda to visit grandsons Ryan and Tyler James 
Cooper.Younger son Rick Cooper and his family 
live in Beaverton, OR. # Western class secretary 
Jan Fisher Barstad reports from Tempe, AZ, that 
Bill and Liz Van Horn Taylor are moving from 
one address to another in Tucson. They sold a 
house out by the Desert Museum, west of town, 
and are moving into town to be near their favorite 
bakery and Trader Joe’s. Jan got a book to press 
with Southwest Parks and Monuments Assn., on 
Hohokam pottery, for anyone interested in prehis¬ 
toric stuff. Jan and husband Ron travel the 
Southwest whenever they can in their customized 
van camper. * Judy Falby Tuttle has gotten her 
program for school-aged boys accredited. In 
January she took them to Whist, BC, for snow¬ 
boarding. In May they went to Belize to snorkel, 
visit the rain forest, and see the Mayan ruins. Her 
students built a photography studio so they can 
develop the pictures they take on their trips. # On 
a trip to New England, Jean Seeler and significant 
other Dave Gifford visited with Jim and Susan 
Long Brock in Williamsburg,VA. Susan has been 
taking classes at William and Mary. Now that Jim is 
retired, they winter in VA and summer in 
Boothbay, ME. Their daughter is being married 
next spring so they won’t be able to get to reunion. 
♦ Jean and Dave ran into Judy Tutde’s younger 
brother and his family on the city dock in 
Annapolis, MD. The Tuttles were returning home 
via the Intercoastal Waterway after spending a year 
sailing in the Caribbean. Jean was wearing the 
Middlebury sweatshirt she bought at our 35th 


Reunion. Start planning for our 40th,June 2-4, 
2000.Thanks for all the notes and e-mails. Keep 
’em coming. 


61 


Class Secretary: Steve Crampton, 
STarbox Rd.,Jericho, VT 05465. 


Ralph Stone has been honored for 
his voluntary provision of legal services to the poor. 
The State Bar of California presented Ralph with 
the Wiley W. Manuel Pro Bono Services Award in 
March. A retired Federal Trade Commission attor¬ 
ney, Ralph volunteers at the Cooperative 
Restraining Order Clinic in San Francisco, assisting 
battered women prepare legal forms with the sup¬ 
porting declarations necessary to apply for restrain¬ 
ing orders against their batterers. * Judy 
Remmington Parsons would be as proud as her 
husband Rod Parsons ’62 is of their son, Brad 
Parsons, and as Susan and I are of our daughter, 
Kathryn Crampton. After college at Stanford and 
Pomona respectively, both Brad and Kathryn grad¬ 
uated with honors from the UVM College of 
Medicine in May. They were two of eight class¬ 
mates elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical 
Honor Society. Brad received the James E. 
Demeules Surgical Research Prize awarded by the 
Medical School, while Kathryn received the 
Charles T. Schectman Award for clinical excellence 
from the Medical School and the Pediatric Prize 
from the New England Pediatric Society of 
Boston. Brad has accepted a residency in orthope¬ 
dic surgery at the Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC, 
where he will reside with wife Cindy. Kathryn has 
accepted a residency in pediatrics at the Fletcher- 
Alien Medical Center in Burlington, where she will 
reside with husband Jason, a second-year resident. 


62 


Class Secretaries: Judy Bosworth 
Roesset, 11909 Arch Hill Dr., Austin, 
TX 78750; Ben (Jim) Rosin (ben- 
rosin@aol.com), 475 Quaker Rd., 
Chappaqua, NY 10514; and Bonnie Boyd Russ, 11 
Ringbolt Rd., Hingham, 3/lA 02043. 


Kathleen McKinley Harris of Charlotte, VT, has 
won the Ralph Nading Hill,Jr., literary prize 
awarded annually by Green Mountain Power Corp. 
and Vermont Life Magazine. Her winning entry—a 
poem entitled “Bear Fear”—was to be published in 
the fall issue of Vermont Life. Her poem was based 
on childhood memories of her family’s farm in 
Hyde Park,VT. # Dr. John W. Furlow, Jr. has 
been appointed interim dean at Ohio University- 
Lancaster.John had been serving as assistant dean 
and chief academic officer of the campus. Before 
coming to the university in 1993, John served as 
the director of academic affairs at Penn State 
University’s DuBois campus and was an assistant 
prof, of history. # Liza Dunphey Fischer was 
planning to take daughter Pam, a Chicago archi¬ 
tect, on a three-week Craftworld Tour in Ecuador 
and Peru this summer. Next summer’s adventure 
will be a 13-day trip in the Grand Canyon with 
Larry. She and a friend have formed a two-woman 
Outdoor Club with the following rules: NO 
SHOPPING!; be outdoors; bring your own lunch; 
be able to walk. Their farthest foray forth was to a 
two-day women’s clinic on sea kayaking on Lake 
Michigan. Among other things, they learned how 
to escape from an upside-down kayak. She said it 
was great fun. # In 1993. Carol Brewer 
Marsden moved from NY to Albuquerque, where 
she is coordinator for the city’s employee assistance 
program. This involves testing and counseling police 


62 Middlebury Magazine 



















PROFILE 


VOYAG E BACK IN TIME 


H eddi Slebel 72 HAS A dream. It took shape 10 
years after her mother gave her a dusty green 
book — a journal written by her grandfather, John 
Colin Vaughan, while journeying to the North Pole with the 
Aigler Expedition. The Aigler Expedition was a company of 
American and Norwegian men who set out for the “blank 
spot on the map” in 1903, in hopes of doing what had not yet 
been done: attaining the North Pole. But on the expedition 
something unexplained occurred; despite ample funding and 
an experienced crew, the ship sank and the expedition failed. 
Nearly 100 years later, Heddi Siebel is attempting to discover 
what caused the expedition to fail so disastrously. 

A painter and printmaker living in Cambridge, 
Massachussetts, Siebel decided that the only way to know 
what happened to her grandfather and the company was to 
take the journey herself. The idea occurred to her that the 
story — the real story, complete with psychological revelation — 
would reveal itself in the landscape as she painted it. She raises 
questions regarding the artistic experience in conjunction 
with exploration, how history colors past events, and the 
connection between story and landscape. By existing in, and 
painting, the landscape that her grandfather explorered, Heddi 
Siebel hopes to find the truth — not only about the expedi¬ 
tion, but about herself and artistic experience in general. 

Siebel, along with her son, Alex Felix, took her first trip 
last summer to Svalbard, a group of islands off the coast of 
Norway owned by 42 separate nations, where she was able to 



Heddi Siebel is exploring, through painting, the territory where her 
grandfather's expedition ended in disaster. 

begin piecing together her grandfather’s story. She kept a 
journal, recording whom she met, the information they con¬ 
tributed, and what she saw. The journal is posted on a Web site 
devoted to the project (http://earth.simmons.edu/arctic_art) 
where Siebel has stockpiled her thoughts and impressions. 

She’ll return to the Arctic in 2001, this time to the Franz 
Josef Land, which is mostly wilderness, populated only by mili¬ 
tary bases and old explorers’ camps. Siebel will spend two years 
there, painting and exploring. “I am taking a decidedly artistic, 
psychological, and perhaps female point of view in analyzing 
just what happened to the group during their two years on 
the Franz Josef Land,” she explains. Julia Whitty, a writer and 
film producer from California, is producing a documentary in 
collaboration with Siebel.The film will use the contemporary 
expedition to tell the historical story. —Courtney Palinbush ’00 


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and firemen, corrections officers, heavy equipment 
operators, etc., for drug and alcohol abuse and 
other problems. She is also president of the NM 
chapter of the Employee Assistance Professional 
Assoc. She has two married children—Anne, who 
has two daughters (5 and 3), and George, who lives 
in Tucson. # Scotti Stephens Wright had one 
hip replaced in May and the second in July. # Judy 
Bosworth Roesset reports taking a Holiday 
Fellowship walking tour in March 1997, in 
Mallorca.That was such fun and I met such a super 
bunch of people that in May 1998 I signed up for 
two weeks with H.F. in Tuscany and this May for 
another two weeks in Sorrento. H.F. is an English 
group. In July I’m going to try one of their walks 
in Wales, in the Brecon Mountains, after spending a 
week in northern Wales at a timeshare with my 
husband and friends. I’ve been severely bitten by 
the travel bug and walking is a wonderful way to 
see bits and pieces of a country, without the temp¬ 
tation to shop (after two weeks in Italy I had only 
$ 15 worth of purchases to declare!) and to meet 
some really fascinating fellow hikers. All these trips 
have been exhilarating experiences. Healthy, too, 
though for some unaccountable reason all' that vig¬ 
orous exercise doesn’t compensate for the abundant 
food and wine! * Bonnie Boyd Russ reports: 
Helen Stone Alcala just returned from the “trip 


of a lifetime” in France. She stayed with a French 
friend she met years ago while studying for her 
master’s in Paris with the Middlebury Program. 

Her travels included Paris and environs, Figeac and 
environs (12th-century villages built into cliffs, sur¬ 
rounded by fortifications), the towns of Provence, 

La Camarque, and Les St. Marie’s on the coast. The 
“French immersion”—speaking, reading, writing, 
and listening to French for a month—was helpful, 
as Helen teaches French and Spanish at Lasell 
College in Newton, MA. Helen’s daughter, Lisa, 
lives in AZ with her family, including Helen’s 
granddaughter Lillian. # Pete Steinle is still 
enjoying sales through his company Steinle 
Associates with Mass Mutual. He and wife Lynn 
live in West Hartford, CT. He admits to taking 
much more time now to enjoy family and travel, as 
well as frequent fishing or hunting trips with John 
Sinclair. Last March, he blew out 60 candles in FL, 
while on vacation with Lynn and children Tom 
’84, Susan Steinle McKenzie ’87, Peter ’92, and 
four grandchildren. In May he returned to FL to 
celebrate the wedding of Jean and A1 ’60 and Jean 
Yeomans Lamson’s daughter, Kate. Reports con¬ 
firm a wonderful wedding and lots of laughs with 
Nancy and John Sinclair, Nancy and Jim Laird, 
and Jim ’59 and Sally Tingle Southard ’61. #Jane 
McKinney Johnson is another brave classmate 


who says “let me hear from you” if you’re planning 
a trip to the Atlanta area. She is one hour south of 
Atlanta and promises bass fishing delight at the 
25,000-acre Corps of Engineer’s lake. (Maybe Pete 
Steinle and John Sinclair will take you up on that, 
Jane!) Jane’s son Patrick graduated from FL State 
last year and has returned to the Atlanta area to 
look for a job. Son David has a year to go at GA 
Tech, where he is an industrial engineering major. 
Jane and husband Bill were looking forward to a 
trip to Warsaw, Poland, in September to visit with 
friends stationed there (Air Attache), who will 
accompany them on trips to Budapest and Prague. 


Class Secretaries: Janet Brevoort Allen 
(janballen@aol.com), 2 Arizona PL, 
Huntington Station, NY 11746; and 
Christopher J. White (crnbiycst@aol.coni), 
15 W. Cavalier Rd., Scottsville, NY 14546. 


63 


On April 30, John Connors completed a five- 
month consulting assignment in Boston. “A high¬ 
light of the sojourn was dinner hosted by Karen 
and Mark Cangiano. Also present were Beverly 
and Sabin Streeter and son Gordon ’90. One of 
us was running in the Boston Marathon the next 
day. It should not be too hard to determine which 
one. As I discovered this trip, there is much more to 


Fall 63 


















Boston than the Combat Zone to which several of 
our classmates escorted me during our college 
years. Had a wonderful time in the North End, 
along Newbury, and in the theater district. Had to 
visit Cotton and Increase Mathers’graves.They 
caused me enough trouble in Prof. Munford’s class, 
so I wanted to be sure they weren’t still writing! At 
the end of the tour, I was reduced to boarding cata¬ 
marans to watch whales frolic in the Atlantic! I did 
get to see a game at Fenway. A great ball park!” # 
Watercolorist Debbie Peterson Tintle was “artist 
of the month” at Montclair (NJ) Community 
Hospital last March. Her travels throughout the 
U.S. and Europe were reflected in this exhibit, 
which included landscapes, Beatrix Potters garden 
at Hawkshead, Renoir’s farm in Gagnes, and the 
boating communities ofRockport and Gloucester, 
MA. Debbie has served as president of the NJ 
Watercolor Society, as a board member of the 
Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, and as a board 
member of the NJ American Artists Professional 
League. * Dr. Edward G. Hixson was profiled in 
the Lake Placid News last February. Besides his med¬ 
ical practice in Saranac Lake, NY, he has served as 
the director of the medical supervisory team for 
the U.S. Nordic Ski Team since 1978 . He was vice 
chair of medical services for the 1980 Olympic 
Winter Games in Lake Placid and has obtained the 
rank of Lt. Col. with the Army National Guard in 
VT. In addition to three adult children, Ed and wife 
Karen are the parents of two teenage sons. His 
“leisure” time activities include high altitude 
mountaineering and expeditions, including Mt. 
Everest expeditions in 1992 , 1993 , and 1994 . * We 
regret to report the death of Susan Whitlock 
Roesler on May 24. A memorial appears elsewhere 
in this issue. 



Class Secretary: John Vecchiolla (vecchiol- 
la@juno.com), 193 Byram Rd., 
Greenwich, CT 06830. 


Check out the alumni Web site at www.middle- 
bury.edu/~alumni, where our class photo is (or 
perhaps was, by the time you read this) the featured 
reunion photo.Thirty-nine class members returned 
for our 35th Reunion in May, when we were 
headquartered in Allen Hall. Sam Gordon served 
as the master of ceremonies for the class banquet, 
held in a tent behind Forest Hall. John Vecchiolla 
was selected to chronicle our lives via class notes, so 
send your news to the address in the heading 
above. John has been reelected to the CT Bar 
Assoc. House of Delegates from District #1- 
Greenwich for a three-year term and to the board 
of governors. # Timothy Hayward is president 
of the Vermont Bankers Assoc, in Montpelier. 

Active in community and political affairs,Tim has 
served as chair of the school board, town budget 
committee, and clerk of the Union High School 
district.Tim and wife Susan have three children. # 
Jean Waller Brune is a “dynamic, dedicated 
teacher, mother and grandmother,” (North Adams, 
MA Transcript July 17) who is waging a battle 
against illiteracy. She taught at Gilman, a boys’ 
school in Baltimore, for 24 years and is now of 
Roland Park Country School in Baltimore, a pri¬ 
vate girls’school. Jean promotes her love of reading 
and is looking forward to reading to her first 
grandchild, Isabelle Jean, who recently turned one. 
# Henry Katz, a 47-year resident of Sharon, MA, 
has been a selectman for nine years and was run¬ 
ning for another three-year term last May. Henry 
and wife Ellen Wilbur have raised three children in 
Sharon. * Molly Buflfum TUrlish is director of 


development, College of Arts and Sciences, 
Northeastern Univ.As a prime mover in initiating 
and managing a minority internship program, 

Molly is the 1999 winner of the Carol and Stephen 
Hebert Award for CASE District I. # We regret to 
report the death of Margaret Roache Wenzel on 
June 9. A memorial appears elsewhere in this issue. 

Class Secretaries: Polly Moore Walters 
(Mrs. Kenneth), 100 Grandview Ave., 
Fort Collins, CO 80521; and Frederick 
W Stetson (fredstets@aol.com), 123 N. 
Union St., Burlington, VT 05401. 

On learning of the death of Wendy Peirson 
Nourjian on May 3, from cancer, Fred Stetson 
wrote the following:“How sad, how disconnected I 
feel, not to have known of your courageous strug¬ 
gle, and not to have known the beauty of your later 
life. But, I can tell by what I’ve read and heard 
about you in recent days that I need not have wor¬ 
ried.You would not want sadness or pity or self- 
pity. You would want us to live life to the fullest and 
that fits the way I remember you. As long as my 
memory serves me, I will not forget the time you 
came to my window (I discovered much later that 
this was your birthday!) on Easter 1962, freshman 
year, when I lived in a ground-floor room in 
Flepburn Hall. On Easter morning, you came to 
my window with a gift. We had not seen much of 
each other that spring. Bruce, I think, had been 
winning your affections. But on that morning, 
while I was grinding away at my books, you left on 
my window sill an Easter basket, not of eggs, but 
three new tennis balls, painted with Easter-like 
flowers, bunnies, and other decorations. Just a little 
something to brighten my life as I struggled to 
meet the academic challenges of my first year at 
Middlebury. I was so grateful for your kind gesture, 
your thoughtfulness, and your friendship. Later that 
morning, you rode your bike out past Lake 
Dunmore to the Falls of Liana. You and a few 
friends swam in the frigid mountain stream and 
then hiked back to Middlebury, laughing much of 
the way. At least that’s how Mike McCann 
remembered the outing. How I wish I had taken a 
break from studying and taken that trip. You gave 
encouragement and joy to others at Middlebury, 
too, especially by your spirited skiing on the slopes 
of the Snow Bowl. You have four wonderful chil¬ 
dren. You have touched others and given kind and 
joyful gifts. We thank you, we love you, and we 
wish you peace and happiness, wherever heaven’s 
fair winds may take you. On behalf of the 
Middlebury College Class of 1965, your friend, 
Fred.” Another memorial appears elsewhere in this 
issue. # We lost another valiant classmate with the 
death of Richard C. Douglas on June 28. Using 
a wheelchair since 1980, due to multiple sclerosis, 
Rick was an ardent advocate for the rights of the 
disabled. From 1991 to 1995 he was executive 
director of the President’s Committee on 
Employment of People with Disabilities, speaking 
nationally and meeting with disability rights orga¬ 
nizations. Knowing that employment is the key to 
participation in society, he urged people to be 
assertive in demanding to be treated fairly. His 
advocacy for access to commuter aircraft created 
national media coverage, which led to a change in 
policy and new regulations requiring lifts for com¬ 
muter planes to accommodate wheelchair users. 
Rick was on campus in April 1997, speaking on 
disabilities and civil rights. We extend the deepest 
sympathy of the class to his wife, Nancy Flinn, and 
all the family. A memorial appears elsewhere. * 



Ann Fowler LaBerge has a third book out: 
Constructing Paris Medicine (Amsterdam/Atlantic; 
Rodzer, 1998). Ann is still an assoc, prof, of science 
and technology studies at Virginia Tech. Daughter 
Leigh Claire graduated from Hampshire College 
(Amherst, MA) in 1998. Daughter Louisa is a 
senior at the Univ. ofVA. 

Class Secretaries: John Rehlen,'Hie 
Manse, PO. Box 275, Castleton, VT 
05735; and Charlotte Stetson, 10 South 
St., Middlebury, VT 05753. 

Carolyn Sharp Hamilton (carolynhamilton(a 
mindspring.com) writes: “We’ve moved on! Took 
early retirement from AT&T/Lucent and found 
sun, fish, and fun in Punta Gorda, FL.This is our 
U.S. base from which we travel to Asia (our for¬ 
mer home), to Italy and Rome, and to the 
Bahamas.” 

Class Secretaries: Susan Danis Patterson 
(spattchs@pop.k 12.vt.us), 67 Robinson 
Pkwy, Burlington, VT 05401; and 
David E. Robinson (wissco@uno.com), 

1 Woodbine Ln., Amherst, NH 03031. 

Class secretary David Robinson reports: Craig 
Ehrich recently reported on a five-day blackout 
that he and about a million other New Yorkers 
endured during a July heat wave. Those of us who 
live in more rural areas may forget what it can be 
like to live on an upper floor of an apartment 
building when suddenly there is no water, no air 
conditioning, no stairwell lighting, no elevator, and 
food spoiled in the refrigerator. Craig reported that 
it was especially tough on the elderly. Many people 
took chairs out to the sidewalks. With no television 
and no lamplight for evening reading, they finally 
had a chance to chat with their neighbors. We also 
recalled, in the aftermath of several shootings this 
year on high school campuses, the relative inno¬ 
cence of our years at Middlebury. There were so 
few kinds of trouble that we could get into—and 
the college rules in the mid-’60s provided penalties 
for offenses that today seem almost quaintly appeal¬ 
ing. I seem to recall a rule against stealing trays 
from the dining hall to slide down Chapel Hill on 
a winter day. Male classmates who remained on the 
women’s side of campus after 11 EM. curfew were 
escorted back across the street by Officer Robert 
Steves. And should a Middlebury woman accept an 
invitation to enter a men’s dormitory and be found 
therein, she could anticipate an immediate suspen¬ 
sion (and a call to parents) from 1 )ean Kelley. Most 
of us did not have cars, knew no one who had a 
gun, and knew nothing of mind-altering drugs 
(other than alcohol).The only big offenses available 
were breaking curfew (unfairly for the women 
only) or being drunk and disorderly.Today’s stu¬ 
dents live in a tougher world. They face far greater 
chance than we did of contracting a sexually trans¬ 
mitted disease, have a greater concern for global 
problems, must sort out the complexities of 1990s 
post-sexual-revolution relationships, and confront 
more complex choices about career and graduate 
school. Add to that the chance of having a 
deranged classmate with a firearm, and you’re talk¬ 
ing about a harsher world. Though they didn’t 
seem so at the time, we can look back at our col¬ 
lege years as a comfortable time for learning and 
growing when we were truly living in a simpler 
world. * Arthur Murphy is a research scientist at 
the Georgia Tech Center for Rehabilitation 
Technology. He formerly taught principles of com- 




. 


64 Middlebury Magazine 













WHAT THEY'D DO 
DIFFERENTLY IF THEY 
COULD 

"DO IT ALL AGAIN...." 


“More!” 

—Michael Jay Epley ’85 
New York, NY 

“I would envision the thoughts and 
feelings which would have made me 
the happiest; trying that and not limit¬ 
ing my experience.” 

—Todd W. Miller ’83 
Burlington,VT 

“Skip the practical courses, science and 
math, and take more art, music, and 
philosophy I’d risk speaking up more in 
class, even if it made me look like an 
idiot” 

—Robert Gladding ’85 
New York, NY 

“I would do a double major in philoso¬ 
phy and German instead of economics 
and German. Middlebury is an academ¬ 
ic utopia—the only chance you may 
have in life to both exercise the mind 
and indulge the intellect. 

—Amy Leith ’90 
New York, NY 

“I would slow down and enjoy the 
beautiful Vermont outdoors.” 

—Anika Kersten-Thompson ’93 
Minneapolis, MN 

“I would have gone abroad junior year, 
and started crew before my junior year” 
—Brian Rickauer, '93 
Greenwich, CT 

“I would have taken more pictures” 

—Ryan Jones ’93 
University Park, Ml ) 

“I would not have become a member 
of a social house. I would have double 
majored in history and art-history. I 
would have snowboarded instead of ski¬ 
ing. I would have taken more literature 
and writing classes.” 

—Aaron Mendelsohn ’95 
Washington, DC] 


puter programming and information technology to 
adults with physical disabilities. * Charles Mead 
has been named VP of sales at Interpath 
Communications. He was most recently VP of 
communications industry sales at Compaq 
Computer Corp. # After more than 25 years of 
service, Jim Soule (jim.soule@state.co.us) retired 
from the Colorado Geological Survey in 
September. He now works part time for the 
Survey, enabling him to deal with chronic arthritis 
caused by hemochromatosis. Jim studied under the 
late Brew Baldwin and the late Pete Coney at 
Middlebury, after which he obtained his masters 
from the Univ. of NM, Albuquerque, in 1971. Jim 
has worked primarily in the areas of engineering 
geology, geologic-hazards analysis, and assisting local 
governments with dealing with related geologic 
problems. Living with wife Evelyn in Denver, he is 
still very active in the Denver and CO professional 
geologic communities. 


68 


Class Secretaries: Bentley Gregg 
(gregg.bentley@epamail.epagov), 418 
East St. NE, Vienna, VA 22180; Nancy 
Brooks Richardson (dr44@aol.com), 10 
Sedgemeadow Rd., Wayland, MA 01778; and David 
Weinstein (dweinst@plainfield.bypass.com), PO. Box 
414, St.Johnsbnry, VT 05819. 


In his capacity as visual effects producer/supervisor 
this past year. Dan Curry received four Emmy 
nominations in the best special visual effects cate¬ 
gory, for three different episodes of Star Trek, Voyager, 
and the final episode of Star Trek, Deep Space Nine. 
Dan, who acquired three Emmies in previous years, 
lives in Bell Canyon, CA, with wife Ubolvan and 
son Devin (17). * Leslie Limon (icom6@mind- 
spring.com) writes: “I have a two-and-a-half-year 
old freelance copywriting business, with the mis¬ 
sion to obliterate gratuitous techno- and market¬ 
ing-speak wherever it lurks. Send me your leads! 
Recently I’ve expanded my campaign to jargon- 
heavy webtext.The good news: the market’s enor¬ 
mous. The bad news: the worst offenders either 
don’t get it or don’t care.” 

Class Secretaries: Anne Harris Onion 
(onionpatch@cyberportal.net), PO. Box 
207, Gilmanton, NH 03237; and Peter 
Reynolds (preyn@ivcvt.com), 64 Maple 
St., Bristol, VT 05443. 



Forty-eight members of the Class of’69 returned 
to campus for our 30th Reunion. Our lodging 
consisted of two of the four new Ridgeline Woods 
houses, which were beautiful. Our social chairs, 
Julianne Wallace and Bill Hearne, were ably 
assisted by Jackie Ogden English of Middlebury, 
although Jackie couldn’t attend reunion. She and 
Dick were attending son Joels graduation from 
Connecticut College. The class banquet was held at 
the Waybury Inn and many in the class ended up at 
Johnson, dancing the night away to Mango Jam. # 
Jamie Johnson Fitzgerald was recently named a 
partner in the Stamford, CT, law firm of 
Cummings & Lockwood. Jamie lives in Guilford 
with her husband, Stephen. * In Ml, Fred Batten 
has joined Berry Moorman PC., a Detroit and 
Birmingham based law firm with an affiliated office 
in St. Petersburg, Russia. Fred is a shareholder in 
the labor and employment law group. * M. Fred 
Brown has been appointed to the board of direc¬ 
tors of Granite Broadcasting Corp. Fred is the pres¬ 
ident and founder ofJetAir Capital, Inc., specializ¬ 
ing in commercial jet aircraft, jet trading and leas¬ 


ing, and aircraft spare parts. * Bill Clinton has 
nominated Judge Bill Sessions to serve as a mem¬ 
ber of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, an inde¬ 
pendent commission in the judicial branch which 
establishes policies and practices for the federal 
courts. # E-mail from Christy Hitchens (star- 
dian@gateway.net): “Sorry I had to miss the 30th 
Reunion, but I was skydiving in Eloy, AZ, doing 
100-person formation skydives! Some of the peo¬ 
ple I was jumping with had just been on the sky¬ 
dive with former President George Bush on June 
9. Most sunny weekends are occupied with skydiv¬ 
ing with a four-person team, and we are again 
planning to go the U.S. National Championships of 
Formation Skydiving in September in Sebastian, 

FL. Come see us there on September 18—26!” # 
Surprise your new class secretaries by sending them 
news at the addresses in the heading above! 



Class Secretary: Andy Wentink 
(andy@Joccls.org), 232 Fycke Lii., 
Teaneck, NJ 07666. 


In summer ’98, Tom Pierson “spent about three 
months in Ecuador on a sabbatical that afforded me 
time to do some immersion Spanish training, teach 
a short course at a university in QLiito, do some 
geological field work in the Andes, and finish up 
with eight days in the Amazon jungle, complete 
with swimming in ‘piranha-infested’ rivers with 
pink, ffesh-water dolphin. QLiite an experience! I 
returned unexpectedly for another three weeks in 
October, during a period of unrest at Guagua 
Pichincha volcano, which is just on the outskirts of 
Quito. In January, I largely set aside active research 
with the USGS to try my hand at science-agency 
management, as associate scientist in charge at the 
Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, WA. 
Homelife is crazy, fun, and estrogen-saturated with 
four teenage daughters/stepdaughters, but I find a 
little time for hobbies that include crafting an elab¬ 
orate tree house in our back woods (1.5 stories and 
sleeps six) and playing jazz and blues on the clarinet 
(resurrected from junior high days). In late June I’ll 
be taking daughter Clare on a college tour through 
CA, stopping on the way to visit former 
Middlebury roommate Fred Shepardson in 
Portola Valley.” * Nancy Heller has “continued 
doing Israeli and Balkan folk dancing, which I’ve 
been performing off and on since age 12. For 14 
years I was in a DC-based Spanish dance perform¬ 
ing group (flamenco, some Spanish classical stuff, 
and lots of folk dances from all regions of Spain). I 
teach Spanish dance occasionally at the Univ. of the 
Arts in Philadelphia, where my ‘real’job is doing art 
history. I still write lots of dance and visual arts 
reviews for various newspapers and magazines. In 
the last 10 years, I’ve been trying to bring together 
art and Spanish dance by giving lectLires and writ¬ 
ing articles about visual representations of Spanish 
dance (by Manet, Sargent, Matisse, et al), interpret¬ 
ed from the point of view of‘performance prac¬ 
tice’—a phrase I’ve only just learned to use. Oh, 
and I recently joined‘Dancers Over 40.’” # Dick 
and Meg Floyd McCann (margaretmccann@ 
worldnet.att.net) are still living in NC, but enjoy 
summer vacations at their cabin in Maine. Last 
summer Meg and Beth Prasse Hassinger met up 
for a day hike in the White Mountains. Beth, as 
well as Dick’s sister, Mary McCann-Baker ’77, were 
planning to canoe the Allagash together with Dick 
and Meg this summer. Dick is chief of vascular 
surgery at I )uke Univ. Medical Center. As an 
escape from the beeper, he likes to fly small planes 
(currently a Bonanza). Meg does part-time consult- 


6 5 


Fall 


Midd Connection 























Kate Mead ’70, Jim Davis ’81, Woody Jackson 
’70, Rip Mason ’73, and Bruce Willard ’77 at 
Woody’s California exhibit (see 1970 column) 

ing work in epidemiology, specializing in research 
on women’s and children’s health issues. Her most 
exciting project involved a trip to Vietnam last 
summer, which began with tracing a map of the 
country to show the provinces where the study 
would be conducted—recalling Middlebury car¬ 
tography classes in the pre-computerized mapping 
era. She is also active on various community gov¬ 
erning boards (church, local soup kitchen, and pre¬ 
viously at the childrens school).“Son Joshua is a 
sophomore at East Chapel Hill High School, with 
ambitions to play basketball at a small college. 
Maybe Middlebury? Daughter Jennifer is a junior 
at Carleton College in MN. Last summer she 
worked at a Girl Scout camp in WI with the 
daughter of Larry and Leslie Boyle ’71 Shipps. 
They discovered their common Middlebury her¬ 
itage when Larry’s daughter commented on Jen’s 
Ben and Jerry’s bandanna, saying that her dad went 
to college with the guy who designed those cows!” 
♦ And speaking of the guy who designed those 
cows, Woody Jackson presented more than 90 
watercolors from CA,VT, and NM to benefit the 
Dream Foundation (formerly Dalmation Dreams), a 
nonprofit organization dedicated to enhance the 
quality of life for individuals and families battling 
terminal illnesses. Woody has intensified his color 
palette and reflects more architecture in his subject 
matter, including the Santa Barbara Mission. Bruce 
Willard ’ll opened up his offices at the Territory 
Ahead in Santa Barbara for the exhibit. Others cel- 
ebradng the opening of the exhibit on March 12 
(see photo) were Kate Mead. Jim Davis ’81, Rip 
Mason 73, and Bruce Willard 77. 


71 


Class Secretaries: Dr. Susan R. Thornton 
(thornton@pronetisp.net), 22 Vincent St., 
Binghamton, NY 13905; and Mr. Barton 
M. Hall (barth@ivebseif.net), 333 
Michigan St., Lawrence, KS 66044 


Deborah Bailey has been elected to the board of 
trustees of the Westfield (NJ) Adult School Assoc. 
From 1971 to 1989, she was employed by the State 
of Lower Saxony, Germany, to teach English as a 
foreign language in the German public school sys¬ 
tem. Since returning to Westfield, she has volun¬ 
teered with the Miller-Cory Museum, the histori¬ 
cal society, the Day Care Auxiliary, and Mobile 
Meals. # Gail Stevenson (stevens@ 
champlain.edu) writes: “A year ago, I moved to 
Burlington, VT, to become director of international 
programs at Champlain College. Although my pro¬ 
fessional focus has been on building links with the 
countries of the former Soviet Union in recent 
years, my job at Champlain entails working with 
new areas of the world, such as Dubai, where I 
even got to ride a camel in April! My daughter, 
Marina, starts second grade in the fall.” * Topsham, 
ME, artist Natasha Kempers-Cullen created her 


largest work so far for the Maine Fabric and Fiber 
Arts Festival last spring at the Pordand (ME) 
Museum of Art, Brunswick. Measuring 150 inches 
square, her “Syncopated Harmonies” was made of 
strips of hand-painted fabric which she tore apart 
and then wove together. Made of 21 panels, each 
was loosely made like a quilt and stretched over a 
wood frame. Covering nearly all of one wall in the 
Great Hall, her work combines her love of painting 
and printmaking and fiber. # Peter Wood 
(pwwood49@hotmail.com) sends an update from 
Yarmouth, ME: “My wife, Ellen, and I continue to 
enjoy ME, biking and sea kayaking. Last winter we 
scuba-dived in Palau and the year before in Papua 
New Guinea. Later this summer we’re spending 10 
days in northern Scotland, Cape ofWrath to John 
O’Groats, for my 50th birthday.” 

Class Secretaries: Jennifer Hamlin 
Church (jhchurch@sienahts.edu), 11151 
Summefield Rd., Petersburg, MI 49270; 
and Judy Wingham (jwingham@ 
home.com), 417 Guildwood Pkwy.,West Hill, Ontario 
M1E 1R3, Canada. 



Sixteen photographs by Jack Montgomery were 
exhibited at the Maine Governor’s State House 
Gallery from April through June. “Soul Survivors: 
Legacy of the Holocaust” depicted Holocaust sur¬ 
vivors who are living and working in Maine. “In 
my view,” Jack reports, “the goal of portraiture is to 
capture something of the spirit that dwells beneath 
skin. A successful portrait reflects a collaboration 
between the subject and the photographer, a col¬ 
laboration born of mutual trust and respect. I am 
very grateful to the individuals whose pictures you 
see here for their trust, and I am honored to have 
had the chance to photograph them.” Jack and wife 
Elisabeth (Ritchie) 72 live in South Freeport, ME. 
# Ellen Mercer Fallon of the law firm Langrock, 
Sperry Sc Wool in Middlebury, was recently elected 
a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, “an 
honorary organization of practicing attorneys, 
judges, and law teachers whose professional, public, 
and private careers have demonstrated outstanding 
dedication to the welfare of their communities and 
to the highest principles of the legal profession.” * 
Janies Purnell has joined the Rockville (CT) 
Public Library’s board of trustees. A Vernon lawyer, 
he is regional information manager for Lexis- 
Nexis, an online database. * Martha Sosman, 
who studies piano with Sally Pinkas at the Longy 
School of Music in Cambridge, has performed in a 
number of solo recitals and concerts. Martha prac¬ 
ticed law in Boston until 1993, when she was 
appointed a Justice of the Superior Court of the 
Commonwealth of MA. 



Class Secretary: Robert E. Buxbaum 
(rbuxfree@aol.com), 35W. 92nd St., 
#6E, New York, NY 10025. 


This spring and summer brought news of joyous 
new births, of the sad and too-early passing of a 
classmate, and of many life events in between. * 
John Akers reported the birth of son Isaias 
Emiliano on Tuesday, April 13—the equivalent of 
Friday the 13th in the Hispanic world. # Inspired 
by the sight of infants amoung the crowd at our 
25th Reunion, Karen and Bruce Lauterwasser 
added Hannah Rose to their family on April 15, 
joining Steven (9), Clara (6), and Gregory (3). 

Bruce has passed the 20-year mark at Raytheon, 
while Karen teaches CPR and lifesaving for 
Winchester Hospital’s Community Health Institute. 


They see Frank and Franci Vinal Farnsworth 
and Bob McGirr from time to time, and were 
delighted to see John Wilson Whitewolf at 

reunion after a number of years. * Jamien 
Morehouse's death on May 3, following a gallant 
struggle with cancer, and the remarkable Web site 
on which her family shared and continues to share 
the process of her dying, brought many classmates 
in contact for the first time in years. Lindy 
Osterland Sargent, Jamien’s good friend, speaks 
for many of us: “I learned so much from James—in 
college, in life after college, in sickness, and in 
death. I think first of her great sense of humor and 
of story. We had so many, many laughs throughout 
these years! And I can still hear them and they give 
me smiles and comfort. Her spirit definitely lives 
on in all she knew and even in those she didn’t. My 
book group up here in northern VT knows her 
well, for example. I loved the Web site because it 
helped me keep in daily spiritual touch (an amaz¬ 
ing capacity for a technological invention!) in times 
when I couldn’t be on the phone with her; it also 
gave me wonderful connections with lots of other 
friends. It was incredible to hear more wonderful 
Jamien stories at the memorial service. The last 
month and a half of her life was emotionally rich 
for me, sharing this ‘passing on’ experience with a 
good friend, who was becoming ever larger than 
life. It was another of Jamie’s gifts. What else can I 
say? I wish she were still around so I could contin¬ 
ue to visit with her, talk on the phone, write letters, 
and laugh. My heart goes out to all who knew her, 
especially her men and boys.” # In 1994, at age 42, 
Sage Russell quit her Middlebury Alumni Office 
job and went off to Emory Law School in Atlanta, 
as one of the oldest students in her class. “There 
were some hard parts, but going to law school in 
my middle years was a wonderfully rejuvenating 
experience. My life was badly in need of shaking 
up and certainly got it. After graduating in 1997,1 
was lucky enough to get exactly the kind of job I 
went to law school for, which (not coincidentally) 
does not entail the actual practice of law. I am 
doing international human rights work in the 
Science and Human Rights Program at the 
American Assoc, for the Advancement of Science.” 
For Sage, Jamien’s death was a powerful reminder 
of missed opportunities to connect that so many of 
us experienced in our college years. Sage is chang¬ 
ing that and has recently seen Guy Kettelhack. 
Larry Novins. Scott Helmers. Keith Oberg. 
and our congressman. Frank Pallone. While on 
vacation this summer, she also spent a couple of 
days visiting Jay Aronson. # Jonathan and 
Priscilla Stone Stevens have reached a watershed 
shared by many classmates. They became empty 
nesters this fall when son Clift' entered Trinity 
College in Hartford. With daughter Kate a senior at 
Midd, they get to see a lot of Midd kids. Priscilla is 
doing a lot of writing and editing and would love 
to see Midd friends. * Three recent bomb threats 



Jan Crean,Alan Lev)’, and Sheila Bamford Pulver, 
all ’74, at Reunion ’99 (see 1974 column) 


66 Middlebury Magazine 












VERMONT HOUSEWIFE CARDS 

C ORRECTION: Join the Art Card Club of Nancy 
Smith Detra ’76 and get a six-pack of cards 
for $14. Each season (Feb., May, Aug., Nov.) 
you’ll receive six cards and envelopes with an invoice and 
return address sticker. Join the club:Vermont Housewife 
Cards, 1118 Green River Road, Guilford,Vermont 05301. 



in her son’s junior high led Catherine Norton 
Scherer to get involved with other parents, listen¬ 
ing to many points of view and helping to pull 
people together. Catherine’s dad is dealing with 
prostate cancer and she finds it a privilege to be a 
part of his process and is grateful for the time they 
have together to celebrate his life. John and 
Catherine took children Asa and Emma on their 
first canoe camping trip to the MN boundary 
waters in August. # Returning to DC from a fam¬ 
ily reunion in the Adirondacks, Jay Aronson also 
reported her great 36-hour visit with Sage 
Russell. She adds,“It does feel like e-mail/the net 
is keeping our connections stronger. Bob Dean 
keeps me chuckling across the miles with frequent 
jokes, a lift on a dark day.” # Sue Meyer Lundy 
reports that daughter Jamien got her name in part 
because she liked it when she saw it in New Faces 
back in 1969! (Also, Sue’s dad is named James.) Her 
Jamien is a junior at UVM. Son Eric graduated 
from Colchester High School and, taking after his 
dad, is an avid ski racer. Steve ’72 still builds won¬ 
derful homes. Sue is an RN in ortho-neuro rehab, 
while pursuing the family nurse practitioner pro¬ 
gram. * In addidon to her normal workload as a 
full-rime prof, at Pace Univ., Kathy Frazer 
Winsted recently coached two soccer teams and 
one softball team, served as division softball com¬ 
missioner, ran a Daisy troop and a Brownie troop, 
helped with Cub Scouts, and taught Sunday 
School. During summer, Kathy worked on research 
while the kids were in summer camps. Summer 
also included a trip to Myrtle Beach, a couple of 
weeks on the Raquette River in upstate NY, and a 
conference in San Francisco. Kathy reports that she 
is up for tenure this fall. * In Arlington,VA, Keith 
Obcrg has taken a leave of absence from the gov¬ 
ernment, while continuing to work for not-for- 
profit Pedals for Progress. (Check out www.p4p.org 
for more information on this fun project.) Leave 
also allows time to coach daughter Kate’s softball 
team and son Alex’s soccer team (the latter in spite 
of having never played a minute of organized soc¬ 
cer in his life). Keith, wife Jessica Mott, Kate, and 
Alex alternate New England hiking vacations with 
explorations of nature out west. * Peter Hamlin 
and wife Chris Robbins have moved to St. Paul, 
taking advantage of Peter’s sabbatical “to live the 
city life for a year.” Chris hopes to do some land- 
use and environmental work, research and writing. 
Peter’s time is filled with many composition pro¬ 
jects, including a particularly exciting one: “I’m 
writing a piece for Middlebury’s 200th anniversary, 
to be performed in November 2000. Emory 
Fanning will be playing organ, and the College 
Choir will join the Middlebury Community 
Chorus and the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble. The 
project includes a number of residency visits to 
Middlebury. * Bill (originally 70) and Melinda 
Held Brunger both enjoyed reunion at 
Middlebury, getting together with friends like Ken 


and Carolyn Leggett Perine. Melinda found she 
had a different appreciation of Middlebury 25 years 
out and felt very comfortable with the people she 
went to school with—many of whom she didn’t 
know well when she was there! Thirteen-year resi¬ 
dents of Houston, the Brungers enjoy the arts and 
international influences (including food). Bill, who 
does revenue management at Continental Airlines, 
ran in his first marathon this year in Fort Worth. 
Melinda became a partner this year at Andrews & 
Kurth L.L.P, and son Chris is a senior at Pitzer 
College in Claremont, CA. # Greg Greenwood, 
wife Christie, and their three daughters (9,11, and 
13) recently visited friends and family in France 
and Switzerland. They skied for a few days and 
then spent a week at a farmhouse in Tuscany. Back 
in CA, they embarked in June on an epic journey 
through central California in a rented motor home. 
This trip included a set of French grandparents and 
an Italian watercolor painter whom they had met 
in Siena. In August, a visiting French cousin 
accompanied them to a family reunion in Jackson 
Hole. * Sallie Sprague was in Australia in sum¬ 
mer 1998; this summer she traveled east to cele¬ 
brate her parents’ 50th anniversary. She had break¬ 
fast and caught up on news with Jenny Potter 
Scheu. Sallie is still doing photography and house¬ 
sitting by a lake in the NW corner ofWA state. # 
Rachel Brunstetter Collins, who teaches water- 
color at the Art League of Northern VA, began 
entering national watercolor shows this year, 
including Watercolor USA, Midwestern Watercolor 
Show, and the Rocky Mountain Witercolor Show. 
As chair of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of 
Mount Vernon, VA, Rachel reports: “During the last 
two years I learned a great deal about social services 
when the Baha’i community here settled a six- 
member family of Iranian Baha’i refugees fleeing 
persecution in Iran. I could write a book on state 
and local social welfare policies and bureaucracy. 
The family is now settled, the children are making 
a success in school, and the parents both have pay¬ 
ing jobs that support them.” # Walter Newman 
reported from his room in Hepburn, as a summer 
student at the Middlebury Spanish School. He 
plans to use Spanish for projects in paper conserva¬ 
tion, working with Cuban, Puerto Rican, and 
Chilean conservators. He reported that he was 
finally learning his way around Starr Library, the 
second rime around. It was interesting to see how 
high-tech student life has become—phones, voice 
mail, and Internet connections in every dorm 
room, and using his Midd Card with a computer 
chip to enter Proctor, do laundry, and buy books 
and Crest Room snacks. # After receiving her 
brown belt inTae Kwon Do in June. Joan Molino 
Mortensen began preparing to teach Taoism, Zen, 
and the Art ofWar, which will deal with the history 
of the martial arts. Her family vacationed on Cape 
Cod. # Marte and Dag Berntsen have three off¬ 
spring involved in skiing, including daughter 


Hedda, who is a senior at Middlebury. Hedda was 
“summer skiing at a glacier near Stryn in our west¬ 
ern mountains with Middlebury student friend 
Jessica Reigle ‘00.” Dag teaches and runs the coun¬ 
seling program at a junior high school. He and a 
former student are “testing an innovation for soccer 
that assures more accurate offside decisions. The 
system is called Offside Marker and consists of 
beams of lights situated on the opposite side of the 
assistant referee’s position.” Dag sends best wishes to 
everyone and would like Theo Slater to write to 
him. # Bob Dean, part owner of a small compa¬ 
ny, reports that his company has been bought by a 
slightly larger company: “It was nice to have the 
affirmation of someone thinking we had created a 
company of value. The integration of the two com¬ 
panies has had a few rough spots, but has gone rea¬ 
sonably well.” Son Mark is a sophomore at Harvey 
Mudd College in Claremont, CA. Daughter Katie, 
a high school student, plays soccer and tennis. Bob’s 
wife, Marcia, is enjoying consulting work. 

Class Secretaries: Greg Dennis (greg 
denis@aol.com), 1053 Hermes Ave., 
Encinitas, CA 92024; and Barry 
Schultz King (kinglet@together.net), 

P.O. Box 11, Ripton, VT 05166. 

What a wonderful reunion weekend! One hundred 
seventeen members of our class, with many spouses 
and children, gathered for a warm, sunny (can this 
be Vermont?) weekend at the “new” New Dorms. 
(The same ones we called the New Dorms, but 
you wouldn’t recognize them as such these days!) 
Among the most interesting and moving events at 
reunion: the Friday morning panel discussion, “The 
Roads We’ve Taken: A Class Conversation,” and the 
Saturday morning memorial service for deceased 
classmates.The Friday discussion, moderated by 
Mark Patinkin, featured a panel of Andy Gross, 
Dan Flanagan, Crystal Dornhoefer Gromer, 
Salley Heyward Knight, and Andy Jackson. 
Thanks to Mark’s nice touch as a moderator and a 
widely shared feeling of openness, many of the 70- 
plus classmates who attended also offered com¬ 
ments and reflections. There were some good 
laughs and a few tears, as well. Crystal 
Dornhoefer Gromer organized the Saturday 
morning service in memory of Kent Nahm, Sam 
Shurgin, Hugh Davey, Mark Gromer, Nibs 
Nelson, Jim Cook, Rick Swacus, Gerry 
Francoeur, Pat Cadden Sherman, Steve Avey, 
Frank Eppich. and Todd Lovington. Led by the 
Rev. Mary Lee-Clark (who also preached the ser¬ 
mon at Sunday morning services), the service 
opened with music provided by Gretchen 
Amussen,Jane McGill Cooke, and Jane 
Peatling. Paul Phillips closed the service with a 
moving rendition of “Old Friends,” which he sang 
and played on guitar. Friday afternoon was devoted 
to golf, tennis, a canoe trip on Otter Creek, and a 
hike up Snake Mountain. It was a beautiful day, 
perfect for our needs. Dave Minot’s son, Joshua 
(now 5, about 2 weeks of age at our last reunion!), 
described the hike this way:“It was a very long 
hike and we saw a chipmunk on the way. At the 
top, there was a foundation of a very old house 
with metal and pipes. We saw turkey vultures and 
hawks. We also saw the lake and the mountains. It 
was lots and lots of fun.” Friday evening found us 
dining al fresco in the company of many of our 
former professors and faculty mentors. Following 
that, Andy Jackson gave a truly memorable swing 
dance lesson! Saturday morning’s memorial service 
was followed by the traditional class photo and then 



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Fall 67 
















the march up the hill for Alumni Convocation in 
Mead Chapel. A solid contingent participated in 
the 5K run that afternoon and that evening we met 
on the terrace outside Ross (a new part of the 
“New Dorms”) for drinks and socializing, followed 
by dinner in Ross. Most folks headed outside after 
dinner to continue their conversations, or went off 
to one of several dances being offered around the 
campus. Sunday morning included a chapel service 
and a sumptuous and scrumptious brunch at 
President McCardelTs house. Throughout the 
morning, there were lingering farewells and regrets 
at not having had more time together, plus promis¬ 
es to keep in touch more regularly. It was interest¬ 
ing for me to reflect that I (Barry Schultz King) 
had made nearly identical good-byes just two doors 
further south on South Street 25 years earlier. 

Quite a few of our classmates returned to 
Middlebury for this reunion for the first time in 25 
years, including three who graciously agreed to 
reflect on why they came back, their impressions of 
the College and our reunion, and special places 
they revisited. (1) Randy Houser: “I realized how 
long it had been since I’d been back and I wanted 
to see the people, so I got on a plane and came to 
the 25th. I visited Sig Ep, saw a cast bronze memo¬ 
rial to the house, went fishing in the East 
Middlebury River, climbed down to the canyon, 
and swam in the cold water. Drove around from 
Ripton to Lincoln, and sat on the patio at Proctor. 

I had a great time and I realized that I should have 
been back for others. I feel that Middlebury has 
changed. I was quite surprised to find a fully func¬ 
tioning bar in the old gym building, and I would 
not be surprised to hear of a Starbucks somewhere 
hidden in the bottom of the library. Proctor even 
has gourmet coffee. Some of this must help explain 
the current tuition, or is a reflection of current stu¬ 
dent attitudes. Somehow I feel our college experi¬ 
ence was more spartan, although relative to the 
average 18- to 21-year-old Americans of our time, 
we had it easy too” (2) Roger Bowman: “My first 
adult friendships were made at Middlebury, and I 
shared a lot of important experiences with those 
friends. The two things that had kept me from 
returning to Middlebury earlier were the distance 
from my new homes and the apprehension that I 
wouldn’t remember anyone—or they me. When 
the 25th Reunion found me living in DC, I 
thought it would be a great chance to put those 
apprehensions aside and try to reestablish some old 
ties. It was better than expected. It was easier to re¬ 
connect with people after 25 years than I’d feared. 
Peter Harris and I made a pilgrimage to return to 
the cliffs at Chapel Pond in the Adirondacks. It was 
a great day in a great place with a great friend. We 
had more trouble finding the cliff (did they move 
it?) than we did climbing the slabs to the summit. I 
also made a solo pilgrimage to the roof of SDU-C, 
a favorite vantage point for watching sunsets over 
the Adirondacks. Yes, the new science building does 
block the view west!” (3) Carol Hatch 
Hutchinson: “Returning to Middlebury for the 
first time in 25 years, I wasn’t sure if I would feel 
like I belonged since I hadn’t been in touch with 
anyone from the Class of ’74 in all that time. I was 
motivated to make the trip by reading stories in the 
reunion yearbook and relating strongly to many 
classmates. I had a series of vivid dreams about the 
place and a need to connect to the landscape. 
Happily, I felt very welcomed by classmates, by the 
staff/college, and by Vermont—great weather! I was 
surprised to find that everyone looked the same, 
only better and more interesting to me. Highlights: 
Friday morning class conversation (“The Roads 


We’ve Taken”) set the tone for open and heartfelt 
connections throughout the weekend. I made new 
friends with several people I hardly knew at all in 
’74. The hike up, and view from, Snake Mountain 
was another treat. (I was so happy there were other 
activities besides cocktails and fund-raising!) The 
best was singing in the choir directed by Emory 
Fanning (something I had regretted not doing as an 
undergrad). Blending voices with alums, feeling our 
combined talents, strength, and harmony, was an 
especially moving and healing experience for me 
that I will not soon forget.” Obviously, not every¬ 
one made it to reunion. Some of our classmates 
said they had hoped to see Stephanie Palmer, 
Sukai Prom-Jackson, Shylaja Paulose Rankin, 
Lenwood Cross, Julia Lara, Mary-Louise 
Romney-Schaab, Audrey Tinsley, Calvin 
Johnson, Stephanie Bowens, and James 
Williams. Hope you will all check in and send us 
your news. And that goes for everyone else as well! 
We missed you. Please get in touch with us, at the 
addresses listed at the top of this column. The way 
time is flying by, our next reunion seems like it’s 
just around the corner.The 25th was so wonderful, 
that you won’t want to miss the 30th! Although the 
bulk of the credit for such a great weekend goes to 
the College (especially Glenna Emilo and her 
excellent staff), special thanks are also due to Tim 
Etchells, Sheila Bamford Pulver, and the rest of 
the Yearbook Committee, to our reunion social 
chairs Kate Peterson Burr and Muddy Waters 
and their committee, and to the Reunion Gift 
Committee and its chairs, Charlie Jackson and 
Nancy Kolligian. And thanks to all who partici¬ 
pated. That’s what really made it a wonderful event! 

Class Secretaries: Bccca Gustafson 
Brown (bbrown@casys.com), 1 Roseland 
Rd., Worcester ; MA 01609, and Tony 
MacDonald (niacennnert@aol.com), 150 
12th St., NE, Washington, DC 20002. 

Cristine Cioffi is the 1999 Businesswoman of 
the Year, chosen by the Schenectady Business & 
Professional Women’s Club. A resident of 
Niskayuna, NY, Christine is president of Carpenter 
&c Cioffi Attorneys & Counselors at Law. # David 
Wolk, superintendent of the Rutland (VT) City 
Schools, has been named to the UVM board of 
trustees. As director ofVermont LEAD Project at 
Castleton State College, David developed programs 
to help education administrators succeed. He also 
held the post of chief of policy for Gov. Howard 
Dean, who reports that David “has been innovative, 
opening the door to public school choice among 
the county’s high schools. And he has been deter¬ 
mined, creating programs designed to keep poten¬ 
tial dropouts in school.” David and wife Diane live 
in Mendon,VT. # In 1976, Max Eaton founded 
Otter Creek Awnings with “two sawhorses, a sheet 
of plywood, and a couple of old sewing machines.” 
Last February,an international company (with SI.5 
billion in annual sales) bought the company. Max 
reports that the sale to Durasol Systems Inc. will 
preserve much of the company’s autonomy and all 
of its 40 employees. Otter Creek will also continue 
to manufacture and market its products under its 
own trade name and its headquarters will remain 
on Exchange Street in Middlebury. “What we do 
will remain the same,” he says. “We’re just going to 
do a whole lot more of it.” * Lisa Phillips, who 
has been organizing art exhibits at the Whitney 
since 1977, is now the director at the New 
Museum of Contemporary Art in SoHo. According 
to the New York Times, Lisa “is known within the art 



world for her intelligence, her passion for contem¬ 
porary art in all it manifestations—she curated 
more than 25 shows at the Whitney—and her keen 
eye for spotting emerging talent.” Located at 583 
Broadway, Lisa’s aspiration is “to make sure the 
New Museum is a must-see stop on anyone’s itin¬ 
erary when in New York.” * Manchester, NH, res¬ 
ident Martha Van Oot Gordon has been selected 
to mediate disputes and arbitrate the dissolution of 
the 1994 merger of Elliot Hospital and Catholic 
Medical Center. Martha was most recently a direc¬ 
tor of Kinder, Mosseau and Gordon. 


76 


Class Secretaries: Marion Adler (madler 
@hhj.com), 530 N. Linden, Oak Park, 
IL 60302;Jennifer Cogswell (jencogsat6 
@aol.com), 6 Overlook Rd., Waltham, 
MA 02154; and John M. Henderson (hendersonjm 
@cdm.com), 131 Martin Rd., Concord, MA 01742. 


JefFrey Russian is the newly named chief plan¬ 
ning and budget officer for the Metropolitan 
Museum of Art, where he has served in various 
capacities since 1991. * Gary Moreau joined the 
Libbey board of directors in 1996, a few months 
after he left Oneida to become CEO of toy train 
company Lionel L.L.C. Libbey has offered to buy 
Oneida and, according to a recent newspaper story, 
Gary “believes the companies would benefit from a 
merger because both are trying to become one- 
stop tabletop suppliers to retailers and food service 
establishments.” * Ed Woodson, a middle school 
teacher at Norfolk Academy in VA, moderated a 
community roundtable discussion at Middlebury 
during the 1999 Peace Symposium last April.The 
Symposium topic—“Speaking of Race”—featured 
several guest orators, panel discussions, and films. * 
In January of 1999. Rick Ridder was named 
International Political Consultant of the Year by the 
American Assoc, of Political Consultants. The polit¬ 
ical consultant industry’s equivalent to the Oscars, 
the award went to Rick for his work in consulting 
on six successful Heads of State campaigns in the 
last six years, and for his efforts as president of the 
International Assoc, of Political Consultants. Rick 
and wife Joannie, who is also his business partner, 
have three kids. They enjoy living and skiing in 
CO, where they live down the street from Jill 
Cowperthwaite. # While in Boston and between 
depositions for a federal court case involving the 
cleanup of a major offshore hazardous waste site in 
CA, Chris Mead dropped in for a visit with Susan 
and Jack Henderson and family—Sarabeth (11), 
J.B. (9),James (3)—in Concord, MA. Chris is the 
sole practicing lawyer in the family, now that wife 
Gail Robinson Mead has retired from her law 
practice to become a full-time mom for Helen (9) 
and twins Cooper and Carson (6). Chris reported 
that the “left coast Midd Kidds '- Bill Grant, 
Mark Gordon, Ely and Jill Robinson Haizlip, 
Rich Hodges, Chandler Lee, Larry Moulton, 
Halsted Wheeler, etc.—are all still living and 
working in or around San Francisco and doing 
great! Chris also quelled the spurious and unfound¬ 
ed rumors that Bob Pender had joined the federal 
witness program and is in fact a partner in a DC 
area law firm and happily living in Falls Church, 
VA, with his wife and three daughters. * Jennifer 
Cogswell was busy this summer, working on two 
movies. For April V (or April Five), she was “locking 
lighthouses on Cape Cod for an August shoot” 
(Surf N’Turf Films, NYC) and she was locations 
scout and manager for The Blue Diner, which was 
being shot in Boston. On June 4, she was logistics 
coordinator for Hillary Clinton’s visit to announce 


68 Middlebury Magazine 


















PROFILE 


NOT SO LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER 


F ollow the 

Tennessee River 
to where it bends 
around the verdant foothills 
of the Appalachian Ridge, 
splitting the city of 
Chattanooga in two, and 
you'll find yourself in 
Lookouts country Lookouts 
as in: home runs, summer 
nights, hot dogs, and two 
camels named Larry and 
Lumpy (more on that later). 

In 1995, J. Frank Burke 
’83 became part owner of 
one of the oldest teams in 
baseball, the Chattanooga 
Lookouts. As president and 
hands-on owner, Burke gets 
to boast of an office inside a 
ballpark, where he helps run 
the day-to-day operations of 
this minor league, double A 
team, which is affiliated with 
the Cincinnati Reds.Burkes 
somewhat dodgy experience 
as pitcher for the Middlebury 
baseball team (“I gave away a 
lot of really long home 
runs”) have been part of a 
lifetime as a baseball fan. 
While attending Harvard 
Business School, Burke and 
his father attempted to buy a* 
farm team near their family 
home in Maine. Even 
though that didn’t pan out, 
the father and son had 
caught a bug. WluleLontin- 
uing to look for another ball 
club to purchase, Burke and 
his partner Charlie Eshbach 
(who is the general manager 


of the Lookouts sister team 
in Portland, Maine) came 
across the Lookouts and 
thought, “The team has a lot 
of potential; it’s in a nice 
•/community.” Soon after, the 
Burke family—wife Susan 
(Meier) ’82 and their three 
children^inoved south to 
become a part of the 
Lookouts team. 

During his time with the 
Lookouts, it lias been Burke’s 
goal to make a visit to his 
ballpark a memorable experi¬ 
ence. First there are the 
camels. “When I first got 
here, we wanted to do some¬ 
thing that would wake peo¬ 
ple up and let them know 
that there were new people 
here. So I leased two camels 
for the summer—Larry and 
Lumpy. We put them m cen¬ 
ter field during the games, 
wearing custom-made hel¬ 
mets” The camels proved 
such a success that Burke 
bought them at the end of 
the season. 

Such zany promotional 
tacticsJare what define the 
colorful nature of minor 
league baseball, which is 
increasingly attracting larger 
numbers of people. Also 
attractive are the $4 tickets, 
smaller ballparks, and players 
willing to give a kid an 
autograph after the game, 
preferable to the big money, 
hardball attitudes of the 
major league. Owners like 


Burke are in tune with 
what the community wants. 

“I try not to do anything"' 
that I would be embarrassed 
for my parents and kids to 
see. We do try and. provide 
affordable entertainment for 
the entire family.” 

The Lookouts front office 
is also the home of Brad 
Smith '95, former shortstop 
for the Middlebury baseball 
team. He happened across an 
opening with the Lookouts 
team while at the career cen¬ 
ter on campus. 

I “I sent my resume to 
Frank and he hired me over 
the phone; my glamourous 
tide was concessions intern.” 
But Smith showed his mettle 
grilling hot frogs and manag¬ 
ing condiments and has 
worked his way up to the 
more impressive title of 
director of public and media 
relations, as well as business 
manager. Part of Smiths job 
is to run the press box during 
home games, arid handle 
interviews with the players. 
He’s also in charge of music, 

"I am the booking agent for 
National Anthem singers. If 
someone Is interested in 
singing, they can come down 
and I bring them out on the ' 
field for their audition. I’ve 
only had to turn down one 
person, because they didn’t 
know the words.” 

There is one singer who 
makes an appearance every 


year—the Orange Yodeler. 
Known for donning 
• Tennessee Football orange, 
the Yodeler warbles the “Star 
Spangled Anthem” in, what 
Smith describes as a “Tiny 
Tim-esque manner.” 

"He’s become a fixture 
around town but we try and 
limit him to singing only 
once a season, and we try and 
keep him away from our 
busy Friday and Saturday 
nights.” 

Well, if the Orange 
Yodeler is lucky, he might get 
a chance to sing in the 
Lookout’s new stadium, 
which is presently being built 
in downtown Chattanooga 
and will be the team’s home 
come next season. With the 
help of community support, 
private funding, and a record- 
breaking season ticket drive, 
Burke and his staff will be 
moving into what he calls, 
“the prettiest ballpark in 
minor league baseball.”The 
1 ^6,000-seat stadium on a hill 
might not have been possible 
without Burke’s dedication to 
keep his team a success. He 
even made an infomercial: 
tk There is nothing quite like 
the experience of seeing an 
infomercial you’ve made run¬ 
ning,back to back with the 
psychic hotline. I’m just glad 
that the tliigh master wasn’t 
on afterward. ” 

—Caroline Fcnncssy ’95 


a new endowment find for City Year, “a nonprofit 
company with a Corps of kids 17-23 who serve 
their community for a year for a small stipend 
before going to college." When Hilary arrived at 
Faneuil Hall, Jen was “in charge of the entire loca¬ 
tion, press corps positions, police backup, Secret 
Service briefing, motorcade route, public crowd 
control, etc. etc. Fun gig to work on. White House 


Advance Team interesting and it was fun to meet 
her." When Jen did event coordinating for a June 
17 fund-raiser, again for City Year, Rebecca 
Kellogg and her husband, Kevin Dennis, were on 
the host committee. “It was fun to see them and 
meet their kids, who helped set up this dinner and 
program for 525 people under a tent at a private 
home in Chestnut Hill." 


Class Secretaries: Virginia L.Jones 
(giniajo@aol.com), 250 County St., 
Taunton, MA 02780; and Katie Lange 
Dolan (katie-dolan@jmsn.coni), 4 Beach 
Avc., Larclnnont, NY 10538. 


77 


Alex Bernstein has been marveling lately at mod¬ 
ern technology. She underwent LASIK treatment 


F A l L 6 




















PROFILE 


A TASTY LIFE ON THE STREETS 


IV# HEN THEY WERE KIDS, 

\ J David (Spike) Gjerde 
w w ’85 and his brother 
Charlie loved to play at owning a 
restaurant. Today, they are still playing, 
but its no longer make-believe.The 
two brothers recently opened their 
fourth restaurant in Baltimore, eight 
years after their first venture into the 
restaurant business with a bistro called 
Spike and Charlies. 

Spike and Charlie are unusual for 
several reasons, one of them being the 
profound affection they have for one 
another, despite their major differences 
of personality. Spike is a Midd alum 
and graduated with a Chinese and phi¬ 
losophy degree, while Charlie went to 
the University of Vermont and gradu¬ 
ated in business. Spike is the artistic 
genius in a chefs hat; Charlie manages 
the financial labyrinth that the restau¬ 
rant business entails. As a team, the two 
are restaurant magicians. 


Spike says lus desire to be involved in 
the food industry was awakened while at 
Middlebury when he volunteered at The 
Knave of Hearts, a bakery that used to 
reside in Frog Hollow. “The place was 
magical,” he says. 

After his time at Middlebury, Spike 
went on to work in various restaurants and 
patisseries, until he decided that he wanted 
to open his own business. At the same 
time, Charlie had tired of managing other 
peoples businesses and wanted to try his 
hand at running his own.Their parents, 
David and Alice Gjerde, helped them come 
up with the initial $50,000 needed to start 
the bistro; the investment has more than 
paid off. 

The newest venture, a restaurant called 
the Joy America Cafes is located right in 
the heart of things. “We re in a really excit¬ 
ing part of the city—the Inner Harbor,” 
Spike explains. Along with their newest 
acquisition and their original restaurant, the 
two run a casual neighborhood cafe and a 


seafood restaurant called The Atlantic, 
located in Canton, a working class area 
that is ill the midst of massive redevel¬ 
opment. 

“The small cafe atmosphere reminds 
me of the lining services situation at 
Middlebury.You have a captive audi¬ 
ence, perhaps, but that means more per¬ 
sonal contact and more personal 
demands. Like, ‘it would be great if you 
had soy milk’ and you know you’ll see 
that person again, so you’d better have 
soy milk for them the next time they 
come in.” 

Today, Spike and Charlie are happy 
about where they’ve come, and even 
happier that they are able to work 
together, even if Spike primarily inhabits 
the kitchen, and Charlie the office. 
“There are a lot of stresses in the restau¬ 
rant business,” says Charlie. “Without 
that [brotherly] connection, I don’t 
know how we would hold it together.” 

—Courtney Palmbush ’00 


to correct her nearsightedness and is now free of 
glasses. She says it’s wondrous to be able to enjoy 
the Hawaiian beaches and see for miles, even when 
she’s in the water or walking in the rain. # 

George Carr sees in a different way: with his art. 
Most recendy, he’s been working on commissions 
for Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, based 
on his larger-than-life sculpture of female figures 
symbolizing a woman’s lifespan. He has also been 
working on a 75,000-pound wall sculpture (an 
amazing 15 by 50 feet!) for the Basilica of the 
National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in 
Washington, DC. Journey Films is following the 
story of the sculpture for WNET in New York, 
which plans to show the documentary on public 
television next spring. ♦ Finally, Jay Heinrichs 
sees a different part of the country these days. He 
left U.S. Airways Attache magazine and New 
Hampshire, packing up the family and moving to 
Santa Fe (12 Cerrado Dr., Santa Fe, NM 87505; 
jheinrichs@outsidemag.com), to take on new chal¬ 
lenges as deputy editor of Outside , a national maga¬ 
zine for active, educated adults who love the out¬ 
doors and are concerned about its preservation. Jay 
will, once again, be working on an award-winning 
team; the magazine has won an unprecedented 
three National Magazine Awards in a row for gen¬ 
eral excellence, which he describes as “the Oscar 
for Best Pictures of the industry.” While he misses 
the Northeast, he has a beautiful house facing the 
Jemez mountains and he finds “the skies mesmeriz¬ 
ing, with rainbows every other day, clouds that 
seem very close—which they are, since were at 
7,000 feet.” He hikes through terrain “ranging from 


stark desert to lush river valleys to red rock canyon- 
land to Vermont-like pine forests above 10,000 
feet.” # And now it’s your turn. How do you see 
the world these days? Please drop Katie or Ginni a 
note, preferably before the end of this millennium 
(however you define it), and definitely before the 
end of the next. 

Class Secretaries: Michael Abend (mike- 
abend@aol.com), 119 Maple St., 

Carlisle, MA 01741; David Jaffray 
(dauidJaffray@%e1co.com), 18427 
Heathcote Ln., Deephaven, MN 55391; Holly James 
Kartna (hollyk@hendrie.com), Hawthorn Cres., 
Brampton, Ontario L6S 1B1, Canada; and Helen 
Cooke Pyne (hcpwrite@aol.com), 69 Stern Ln., 
Atherton, CA 94027. 

Marti Mayne gave a seminar last spring on the 
ABCs of effective resume writing: “Don’t Sell 
Yourself Short!” Marti has managed everything 
from large hotel grand openings to events for USA 
TODAY , ski areas, retail developers, and political 
campaigns. Her firm, Maynely Marketing, offers 
marketing programs for hospitality and retail clients 
throughout the country. * Ellen Hall Adams 
brought her family to the 59th Annual Sugar 
Slalom at Stowe, a two-day family skiing competi¬ 
tion in early April. Competing in different classes in 
the Sugar Slalom along with Ellen were husband 
Michael, son Cameron Brooks, brother-in-law 
Charlie, and niece Colby. Ellen told the Stowe 
Reporter. “We thought it would be an opportunity 
to get together and race. I wanted to beat my hus¬ 


band. He got me by five one-hundredths of a sec¬ 
ond.” Captain of the women’s ski team our senior 
year, Ellen claimed that participating in the Sugar 
Slalom was vastly different from racing on the 
Middlebury College ski team in the mid-1970s 
when it won the NCAA Championships for two 
consecutive years. Unfortunately the race course 
was hard and icy, due to a rainy day followed by a 
frigid night. Ellen “stood in the starting gate think¬ 
ing, ‘What in the world am I doing?’ It was a hum¬ 
bling experience I’d have to say.” Sounds like a 
good time was had by all—and niece Colby (10) 
won the J3 women’s race. 

Class Secretaries: Donna Brewer 
MacKenna (dbmack@aol.com), 125 
School St., South Hamilton, MA 
01982; and Margaret A. Paine 
(mapaine@christa.unh.edu), 35 Edgewood Rd., 

Durham, NH. 03824. 

It may have rained on our graduation, but the 
weather gods more than made up for that slight 
with perfect weather for our 20th Reunion. Blue 
sky days made for great exploring of all Midd s new 
buildings, swimming at Lake Dunmore, and just 
hanging out together. One hundred and ten class¬ 
mates made the trip—and with spouses, kids, and 
friends, we numbered 253. It was great seeing old 
friends and making new ones and discovering that 
while much has changed, the essentials remain the 
same. Dinner at President John McCardell s house 
got rave reviews. That s our second reunion in a 
row with the McCardells, so we hope this is 




70 Middlebury Magazine 

















becoming a tradition! From dinner, we moved on 
to dancing at Johnson to the music of Mango Jam. 
As Perry Babcock reported, “Validating that we 
are all still able to boogie was the highlight for me. 
Pat Durkin still can’t dance, and Elibet (Moore 
Chase) still has the best laugh. Mike Parker, alias 
Roy, won the receding hairline contest, and Lisa 
Salisbury had the best music!”We missed the peo¬ 
ple who didn’t come and hope you’ll make it to 
the 25th. Sandra Buzz Buzby Whalen reminded 
me that the women thought they’d aged better 
than the men, but then this column is being writ¬ 
ten by women. So, men of ’79, get even and volun¬ 
teer to be class secretary! And speaking of Buzz, it’s 
great to have her back east, now that she’s working 
as a counselor and coaching women’s ice hockey at 
St. Paul’s School in Concord, NH; her husband is 
director of sales and marketing at the Manchester 
Union Leader. She reports that son Casey (6) “can 
make a science experiment out of anything. He’s 
turned our dining room into a science lab.” * 
Many people had not really been back to 
Middlebury since graduation, including Nancy 
Grant. Nancy lives in North Yarmouth, ME, with 
her husband of almost 20(!) years, son Oscar (15), 
and daughter Elise (13). She reports that, “contrary 
to what most people say, parenting teenagers is 
fun—most of the time.” Nancy has worked as tech¬ 
nology coordinator at Freeport High School for 
seven years. “It is not at all related to my major, but 
interesdng and always a challenge.” She spends a lot 
of time carting kids around or watching their activ¬ 
ities, but says that since her children are older, she 
has time to play in field and ice hockey leagues. 
They all ski every chance they get, bike, and hike a 
lot. Nancy invites people to look her up if they’re 
in the area. * Jennifer Cross Peterson reminded 
me that the 20th Reunion means that people half 
our age are in college! And that a number of class¬ 
mates have children heading off to college next fall. 
Jennifer lives in Weston, MA, with her husband, 
daughter Heather (14), who’s into showjumping, 
and Erik (11), who’s into computers, Nintendo, and 
drawing. Jennifer’s business, School Seal, provides 
promotional items to schools, mosdy prep schools 
and colleges. “I prepared for this by earning a mas¬ 
ter’s degree in biology from Yale University!” She 
ran into Sharon Flack Mussomeli about a week 
after reunion. Sharon had flown in from Bahrain 
and was heading up to Middlebury to attend the 
Arabic summer school. * Mary Ann Preskul- 
Ricca had a good excuse for not being there: she 
and husband Joe Ricca welcomed son Joseph Peter 
Ricca on April 27 in Shrewsbury, MA. Mary Ann 
is on leave from her position as public affairs coor¬ 
dinator for the MA Assoc, of HMOs. * The Rev. 
Mary Lee Krahn has been installed as pastor of 
St. Mark Lutheran Church in Mayville, NY. She 
has served as an assistant pastor of First Lutheran 
Church in Jamestown, NY, an interim pastor for St. 
Timothy Lutheran Church in Bemus Point and 
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Jamestown. She 
was also a pastoral care coordinator for Hospice of 
Chautauqua County. Mary lives in Jamestown with 
her two sons. * Chip and Heather Vuillet ’81 
Lende finished fourth place over all out of 192 
teams and first in their division (four-person mixed) 
of the Kluane to Chilkat International Bike Relay 
on the Haines Highway between Haines Junction, 
Yukon Territory, and their home in Haines, AK. 
Their team covered the scenic 160-mile course 
through the world’s largest park in 7 hours and 53 
minutes. Chip and Heather have been living in 
Haines since 1983. Chip owns the town lumber 
yard, has served on the city council for 10 years 


and—when he’s not busy with his family—runs 
marathons, fly fishes, skates, skis, and bikes. This 
summer the Lendes adopted their fifth child, an 
eight-year-old Bulgarian girl. Chip says anyone 
who wants to ride in a great bike race should come 
on up. And if you’re on an Alaskan Cruise, be sure 
to stop in—his lumber yard (Lutak Lumber) is 
right across the road from the tour ship dock. # 
Our own Asa Phillips won reunion’s top award, 
the Alumni Plaque, for outstanding service to 
Middlebury. We all got to salute Asa by pounding 
our Gamaliel Painter’s canes on the Mead Chapel 
floor during Convocation. Middlebury has been 
giving out canes at graduation for a number of 
years and is now awarding them to alumni who 
come back for reunion. Another incentive to come 
back for the 25th! And all of us who were there for 
the 20th look forward to seeing you then. 



Class Secretaries: David and Laura 
LaFeverAustin, 305 Swift St., 

S. Burlington, VT 05403. 


The 40th birthday of Donnie Roach ’80 was a fine 
occasion for a pig roast in Topsfield, MA, on June 
20,1998, bringing together Andy Nestler, Craig 
Franklin, Paul Scheufele, Donnie Roach, Sue 
Follett Panella, Frank DeLuca, and Eric 
Kemp. * Andrew McColough is now general 
manager and VP of print media sales for 
Adauction.corn’s new office in NYC. Andrew 
launched and managed magazine and book divi¬ 
sions for Time Inc. Magazines for the last 10 years, 
before which he held business manager positions 
with Fortune and Life magazines. Most recently, he 
was publisher ofTime Inc.’s This Old House 
Books. * Kimberly Adams Klintworth loves 
living in Salt Lake City, where she has co-anchored 
the afternoon and evening news on Channel 4 for 
11 years. She is very active in the community, her 
primary commitment being to the YWCA and the 
Battered Women’s Shelter, where she serves on the 
board of directors. Kimberly has a daughter, 

Katelyn (fifth grade) and a son,John (third grade); 
husband Skip Klintworth has two high-school-age 
daughters, Kelly and Brittany, who visit frequendy 
from CA. As the longest-running anchor in 
Channel 4’s history, Kimberly is in no hurry to step 
down. She thinks that the next 10 years will reveal 
how long women anchors stay on the air: “You can 
look great and be 50.1 can think of a lot of 
women who are more beautiful at 50 than they 
were at 30.” # Norma Mabry (M.A. French ’88) 
taught French at Phillips Andover Academy for 10 
years and was an assistant prof, of languages at 
Merrimack College before joining Rye Country 
Day School as head of the department. Since 
Norma started a French exchange program in 1998 
and a Spanish program in 1999, her department 
now engages in exchanges with students from 
Costa Rica, France, and Japan. * Mike Harris is a 
lawyer at Sutherland, Collins, McMahon Sc Harris 
in Burlington, but he’s also busy as co-chair of the 
Williston (VT) Conservation Commission.The 
Commission helps to protect some of the town’s 
natural features from urban development, some¬ 
times getting the money together to purchase 
development rights and enable farmers to keep 
their land in agriculture. Water quality is another 
issue that concerns the Conservation Commission. 
Mike, who lives in Williston with wife Robin and 
their three children, also manages to fit in home¬ 
brewing, gardening, biking, and cross-country ski¬ 
ing. * Samuel Hanscom Burridge arrived on April 
23. His parents are Lewis and Anne Bailey ’83 



A birthday pig roast (see 1980 column) 


Burridge, and he has two big sisters, Amanda and 
Allison. The Burridges live in Newburyport, MA. 


81 


75225. 


Class Secretaries: Anne Borchardt Exler 
(exler@erols.com), 35 Karen Dr., 
Underhill, VT 05489; and Sue Dutcher 
Wagley, 4060 Hanover Ave., Dallas, TX 


Four Middlebury friends (see photo) are enjoying 
life in the San Diego area. Alisa Joyce Barba 
(ajbarba@home.com) recently resumed the pursuit 
of news with a new job as West Bureau Chief for 
NPR. She and husband David are also busy raising 
Maya (5), Patrick (4), and Gina (18 mos.). Stephen 
Burke works for Sony in San Diego, marketing 
teleconferencing and wireless communications. His 
spouse. Cindy Murphy, studies opera and helps 
direct the upbringing of sons Evan (7) and Liam 
(6). Lydia Thompson ’82 continues her scholarly 
pursuits of Han Dynasty tomb art, while raising 
Anna (4) and Elena (6 mos.) with husband David 
Fox, a computer scholar at UCSD. * In Gilford, 
NH, Hayden and Ruth Turner McLaughlin 
(mclaugh@inc-net.com) now have three children: 
Daniel (8), Grace (4), and Catherine Hayden 
McLaughlin (born October 14,1998). Besides 
keeping three children busy, Ruth reports, “we are 
extremely busy keeping our landscape construction 
business running smoothly (www.belknapland- 
scape.com).” # Julie Olin-Ammentorp, prof, of 
English at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY, 
recently received the Matteo Ricci, S.J., Award for 
Achievement in Diversity. Julie was recognized for 
her efforts to develop strong bonds between stu¬ 
dents and faculty of different cultures at Le Moyne. 
She has also supported diversity by emphasizing the 
writings of minority writers in her teaching. # 
Katherine McCarthy writes of “the joy of lasting 
friendship” in a recent Colonie, NY, newspaper 
column. Now communicating with friends via e- 
mail, she came across a stack of 20-year-old letters 
from Midd friends and now resolves to print out 
her messages so she will have that same pleasure in 
another 20 years. # David Levy is president of his 
own real estate investment counseling firm and 
developer of a new software tool for the hotel and 
lodging industry. In his town of Lincoln, MA, he is 
an adviser to the board of assessors. * Barbara 
Burns Comstock is on the Government Reform 
Committee. A Criminal defense and personal 
injury lawyer before signing on with the commit¬ 
tee in 1995, she says her best preparation for the 
investigation’s grueling demands has been parenting 
three children (15,14, and 10). Being a mom has 
taught her to “juggle a lot balls at one time.” * 
Heather Vuillet Lende is still living in Haines, AK 
(pop.2,400), with husband Chip ’79 and five chil- 




Fall 71 


Midd Connection 



























dren, including a Bulgarian girl whom they are 
adopting. Besides her regular column, “We 
Alaskans,” in the Anchorage Daily News Sunday 
magazine. Heather contributes to the electronic 
version of the Christian Science Monitor. ; and is an 
occasional commentator on AK for NPR’s Morning 
Edition. For three summers she has been part of 
“West Coast Live,” a San Francisco radio show’s AK 
tour, and she writes features and obituaries for the 
Haines weekly paper, the Chilkat Willey News. In the 
fall, Heather coaches the Haines High cross-coun¬ 
try teams (boys and girls). She says anyone coming 
through AK should look her up: “We’ve got lots of 
room and would to love to have company from 
back east.” 

Class Secretaries: Mar)' Beth Litster 
Cockerham (marybeth.cockerhani@ 
east.sun.com), 1262 Dartmouth Ct., 
Alexandria, VA 22314; and Ellen Harris 
Sunggett (jswigg@aol.com), 115 Island Ave., Madison, 
CT 06443 . 1 

Seventeen years after graduation, three ’82 friends 
met for breakfast at the Buckhorn truck stop off I- 
80 in Milesburg, PA. Andrew Wilson (seno- 
ramw@aol.com), asst, head at the Grier School, 
came to breakfast from Tyrone, PA, where he lives 
with wife Darcy and daughters Emily and Hope. 
Andy Kleit (ankl@psu.edu), an assoc, prof, of 
energy, environmental, and mineral economics at 
the PA State Univ.. drove over from State College, 
wiiere he lives with wife Susan and children Paul 
and Esther. Brian Williams (bwilliam@orion. 
valpo.edu), director of the Interlink Language 
Center at Valparaiso Univ. in IN, was en route to 
CT with wife Man.’ and children Hayley and Peter. 
Brian and Andy were roommates in Battell Center 
freshman year. Brian and Andrew were roommates 
in the Chateau sophomore year. * David Taylor 
has been elected a partner in Seattle at Perkins 
Coie, the Pacific Northwest’s largest law firm. 
Before joining Perkins Coie, he served as assistant 
U.S. attorney in the major frauds section of the 
U.S. attorney’s office, criminal div., in Los Angeles 
and in Seattle. * Tom Ostler, brother George 
Osder, and a childhood neighbor have sugared 
together for 22 years in Hartford, VT. They make 
only 200 to 250 gallons of fancy syrup every spring 
at Scattered Maples, but they love doing it—on top 
of their other jobs. The whole neighborhood likes 
to stop by and enjoy the boiling sessions, which 
often extend until midnight. Tom says, “It’s a rite of 
spring for me. It helps fund my other money-losing 
ventures, like selling Christmas trees, hay, natural 
beef, and wood products.” Tom is a teacher at the 
Hartford Career and Technology Center. * The 
Jazz Dance performance on June 12 at the Flynn 
Theatre in Burlington included “Ezekiel’s Wheel,” 
with music composed bv Philip Hamilton, who 
was also a vocal performer. With his innovative style 
of singing and composing. Philip s musical style has 
been called “contemporary” and “cutting edge” by 
the New York Times. He has been a featured artist 
with the Pat Metheny Group at the Monteaux, San 
Sebastian, and Montreal Jazz Festivals, as well as 
Brazils Globo-FM Music Festival and Japans NHK 
Music Series. Philip composed the theme to the 
Emmy-award winning PBS series Say Brother and 
was the featured vocalist in the original motion 
picture soundtrack of Harriet the Spy. * While in 
Atlanta for business,Joe Weis met up with Rob 
Davis, who seems to be happy working for 
PriceWiterhouseCooper. Joe also reports that 
Andy Bennett and wife Paula now have three 



PROFILE 


THE PLAY'S THE THING 

B rian Silberman '89 wanted to act. When he 

couldn’t get cast in any theatre productions while 
at Middlebury, he began writing his own plays. “I 
started writing my own stuff so I could get a part, and I 
soon discovered that I liked the writing aspect of theatre 
more than the acting.'’ Silberman wrote a play for his senior English project, and 
directed it for his senior theatre project. Seven years later, the play opened Off- 
Broadway. “I remember I got a B on that play, but I’m not bitter,” he laughs. 

Silberman s laughter reveals the strain of hope latent in his work—the strain 
that allows him to probe dark subject matter and stay afloat. It comes in the form 
of epiphany for two characters wrestling with life’s tangible and metaphorical 
monsters in a subway bathroom in Sugar Doiuti Billy Hoak (his senior piece). It 
comes in the gut-wrenching humor of one of his most recently acclaimed works. 
Manifest , a theatrical/historical vaudeville about insurrection in the death camps of 
the Holocaust that won him the 1998 Clauder prize, among a slew of other lau¬ 
rels. (Manifest was produced by the Portland Stage Company as part of their 1999 
mainstage season, and premiered in New York City 7 this fall at the Stella Adler 
Theatre.) 

“With every new play I learn more about myself as a playwright. Hopefully, I 
am growing as a writer, learning more about the craft and art of dramatic writing, 
becoming a more efficient, accomplished, imaginative, and daring storyteller.” 
Currently Silberman is teaching screenwriting for a year at Southern Illinois 
University. 

—Courtney Palmbush ’00 



children, including son Parker and daughters 
Sanders and (new addition) Harper. Andy continues 
to enjoy running Bennett Supply Company with 
his brother. * Betsy Currier Beacom started a 
new part-time job last February, as a writer in the 
public affairs office at Southern CT State Univ. At 
her daughters’ elementary school, Betsy writes and 
edits the bimonthly PTA newsletter, which last 
spring won the 1999 Children First in Connecticut 
Newsletter Award for her region’s arm of the CT 
PTA. * Still living on the Upper West Side. Brett 
Summers and wife Jane welcomed daughter 
Callie Elizabeth last December. Son Holden recent¬ 
ly turned two. * In Minneapolis, Deniz and 
Larkin McPhee Perese welcomed third child 
Lucas on March 9, right in the middle of the 
record-breaking snowfall of the season. An award¬ 
winning independent public television producer, 
Larkin is working on a new project about eating 
disorders. * Thanks to everyone who has taken the 
time to share some news with us. Since it seems 
that many e-mail addresses have changed, please 
take a minute to forward yours to either MaryBeth 
or me. While you’re at it, send us some new’s! For 
those of you without access to e-mail, write us a 
letter! 


Class Secretaries: Ruth Kennedy 
(ruthk@garden.org), 231 Park St., 
Burlington, VT 05401; and Siobhan 
Daily Ulrich (sulrich(@wcstminster. 
pvt.kl2.ct.us), Westminster School, 995 Hopmeadow 
St., Simsbury, CT 06070. 


83 


Congratulations to Hugh Coyle, w’hose poem 
“Love or Nothing,” has been selected for a 
Pushcart Award—meaning that out of about 4,000 
nominees, his poem has been chosen as one of the 
final 50 to 60 stories and poems which will appear 
in the Pushcart Anthology for the year 2000. “Love 
or Nothing” appeared in the magazine Art and 
Understanding in November. * Members of the 
Middlebury’ Alumni Lacrosse Club honored the 
memory of Bruce Gevertz by placing a notice in 
the ’99 Vail Lacrosse Tournament Program, with a 
photo of him wearing a Middlebury’ shirt. * Artist 
Jane Ogden taught a summer course in printmak¬ 
ing to children (6-11) at the Winged Arts Studio in 
Manchester, VT. Her course explored relief carving 
using rubber, wood, potato, and organic prints. * 
Rebecca Fox was ordained as a minister of the 
Presbyterian Church in August. * Helen 
Hammond works in the education office at the 
Boston Symphony Orchestra. She enjoys rowing 
on the Charles River. * In Newburyport, MA, 
Lewis ’80 and Anne Bailey Bur ridge, welcomed 
son Samuel Hanscom on April 23. Sam’s sisters are 
Amanda and Allison. 


84 


Class Secretaries: Kristen Gould Case 
(pchelga@pcfastnet.com), 6490 Snowineir 
Dr., Park City, UT 84098; and David 
Wagstaff IV (wagsiv@Jiotmail.coni), 

1007 5th St., #D, Santa Monica, CA 90403. 


Well, the amazing Midd Class of’84 rallied strongly 
for our 15th Reunion over Memorial Day vveek- 


72 Middlebury Magazine 















end. With sunny weather in the 80s, Midd really 
rolled out the welcome wagon and our class set a 
new 15th Reunion gift participation level record. 
Coffrin Hall, our reunion HQ, has never seen such 
a fun gathering of friends, families, old roommates, 
etc. The current Middlebury students acting as 
“hosts” for all the reunion classes were very 
impressed by the Class of ’84 s ability to “rock” 
Coffrin Hall and “Party like it was 1999.” We 
missed our social chair. Kristen Gould Case, but 
thanks goes to her for her organizing efforts. A few 
strong individual reunion performances must be 
mentioned: Liz Hackett Robinson put on a 
great show all weekend; Jason Bacons Range 
Rover died at Baba’s (the old Lyons Place); Ed 
Schaefer sampled some Otter Creek; PQ (Paul 
Quinlan) and Jay Klein won three bets on the 
back nine; Chris Wall didn’t let the Big Dog eat; 
Mason Wells liquified on Friday and rebounded 
Saturday under supervision; Rick Makin learned 
how to flip a cup; D’Arcy zydeco-danced with his 
pants around his ankles; David Spaidal ran, boot¬ 
ed, and still won the 5K race; James Burke blew 
in from CA; Kevin Mahaney flew in, and Leslie 
Wright came out of nowhere. Chi Psi had a mini¬ 
reunion with Buck, Draino, our trustee Mr. Know, 
Zehner, plus two from London, Jason and Dave, to 
name a few. Phil Huffman. Jim Robinson, and 
Tom Kottler are going to remedial volleyball 
camp; DVG brought her Seminole bag; Doug 
Robotham broke a Chateau window with a soft- 
ball blast; Anne Hambleton danced like a crazy 
woman; Rick Peterson and Liz Eppes Winton 
came a-calling under the Hadley tent; while the 
Tabah, Makin, Dewey, and Hackney offspring 
will make a great co-ed soccer (or drawing) team 
some day. Martin Beatty closed down Ups on 
Sunday night, while Marty Lanigan listened to 
Midd NCAA LAX on the ride home. Kathy 
Meek Lehner gets an award for being the only 
person to send old class pics. Sorry if we missed 
other noteworthy reunion performances. Thanks to 
everyone who made the effort to come up to play 
in VT and make our Midd gathering so much fun. 
Also, thanks to all those who helped by donating to 
the Midd cause. For those who haven’t seen the 
Natatorium, the new science center (Bicentennial 
Hall), or the new Kenyon Arena, maybe by our 
20th Reunion a new Field House will be added to 
the lineup. Stay tuned. * In other news, Tom 
Kottler ran the Boston Marathon in April as part 
of a 25-member team pledged to raise more than 
$140,000 for the Judge Baker Children’s Center, a 
Harvard Medical School affiliate in Boston. # 
Congratulations to Mike Noonan, who was 
inducted into the New England Soccer Hall of 
Fame on May 2. As men’s soccer coach, he won 



A truck stop reunion off'1-80 (see 1982 column) 


his third Ivy League title in four years at Brown 
last season. His career record in 10 seasons of 
coaching is 111-57-18. 



Class Secretary: Dale Sailer 
(chicago_sailers@msn.com), 223 7 
Unneman St., Glenview, IL 60025. 


Well its less than a year away, folks. Our 15th 
Reunion and Middlebury s 200th birthday are 
quickly approaching—perhaps too quickly for 
some of us. Please be sure to start making plans to 
join us for a great time in the Green Mountains 
and get your very own Gamaliel Painters cane. 
Don’t be among the missing. * Spike Gjerde and 
brother Charlie have taken overjoy America Cafe 
in the American Visionary Art Museum in 
Baltimore, where they also have their original 
restaurant, Spike & Charlie’s, as well as cafes in 
Bolton Hill, Atlantic, and Canton (with adjoining 
bakery). Spike and wife Amy live in Baltimore. # 
With a masters in science from UNH and 10 years 
of work in the environmental field, Denah 
Lohmann Toupin is qualified to speak out about 
the dangers of having a power plant in her Dracut, 
MA, neighborhood. She appeared recently on the 
local cable access program, Weekly Round Table, to 
point out some problems that will befall the com¬ 
munity if the 750-megawatt gas-fired power plant 
is built. # Stephanie Ullrich and Michael Burke 
were married on July 25,1998, in Chicago where 
they live. With a master’s from the International 
Institute for Management Development in 
Lausanne, Switzerland, Stephanie is a health care 
strategy consultant in Chicago. Her husband is a 
senior product manager at Abbott Labs in 
Waukegan, IL. * Sean Cahill received a Ph.D in 
political science from the Univ. of MI, Ann Arbor, 
in August 1998. Having recently led the Lesbian 
and Gay Alliance of MA and the MA Human 
Services Coalition, Sean is now research and policy 
director at the Policy Institute of the National Gay 
and Lesbian Task Force. * Instead of teaching ski¬ 
ing last winter, John and Cecelia Faulkner Soscia 
became “students of parenting” with the birth of 
son Gavin on January 29. * Edith Furber 
Zhang announces the birth of son Miles Bixby 
Zhang last February. “Of course we think he is the 
most adorable baby!” # Rick and Johanna 
Glover Wasylik welcomed child number two, 
Nicholas, on April 29. Nicholas joins sister 
Charlotte (2) on the farm in Canada. # Charlie 
and Jane Harvey Curtis have two children 
now. Sam is 2 1/2 and his new sister, Nancy 
McLanahan Curtis, arrived on May 14. * Lissa 
Briggs Gosiger (geesegang@aol.com) e-mails 
that child number three arrived on June 24. Sam 
joins siblings Paul (4) and Maggie (2) and dad 
Paul at the family’s new residence in Cincinnati, 
just a few short blocks from the old one. # Your 
secretary recently attended a work conference in 
Boston only to find none other than Rod Fox 
as one of the principle speakers. Rod is the pres¬ 
ident and chief operating officer of E.W. Blanch, 
a highly respected, long-time player in the 
greater insurance industry. Rod and wife Darby 
continue to live in the Dallas area with their 
large clan. Rod reports that Andy Bustillo and 
Rob Bredahl are also on the Blanch payroll and 
doing just fine. * Finally, I was delighted to pick 
up my Chicago Tribune on a recent Sunday morn¬ 
ing and see our own Jon Starrett quoted 
regarding this years All-Star selections. Jon is the 
marketing director for the Chicago Indians and 
appeared to take a special delight at the Indians 



Middlebury friends in San Diego (see 1981 column) 

fans’ loyalty to their local heroes at the expense 
of Texas’s Juan Gonzalez. 

Class Secretaries: Mar)' Sue Holland 
(msuehollnd@iol.com), 65 W. 96 St., 
#17D, New York, NY 10025; and Julie 
Morris Ogden (ogdens@wonoldfarms. 
com), 500 Old Farms Rd.,Avon, CT 06001. 

Torsten Garber (torstengarber@hotmail.com) 
was “temporarily assigned to the NATO Air Ops 
Center inVincenza, Italy, from 03 June to 15 July.” 
Drop him an e-mail note. # Rebecca Gilman is 
the author of Spinning Into Butter, her second play 
“to make waves in the Chicago area in as many 
years and one of the more explosive dramas to 
come our way in some time” (in the words of the 
Chicago Tribune). Set in “a VT college,” she says she 
“was writing about ways in which white people 
objectify people of color, whether to denigrate or 
idealize them.” She says she’s “trying to find a bal¬ 
ance between being realistic about what I think 
might be a potential cure and not wanting to be so 
didactic I turn people off.” Her other plays include 
The Glory of Lining, about the youngest woman to 
serve time on Death Row (1996), and The Crime of 
the Century, about mass killer Richard Speck, to 
premiere next season, along with Boy Meets Girl, 
about a NYC woman whose blind date becomes a 
stalker. * Charlotte Lindsay (charburger@ 
yahoo.com) is enjoying her sixth year of teaching 
French and Spanish at Golden High School in CO. 
“In 1996,1 finally finished my M.A. in Spanish at 
the Middlebury Spanish program. It was a lot of 
fun to be on the campus in the summer. Last sum¬ 
mer, I was in Paris taking classes to keep my teach¬ 
ing certificate current. It was an exciting time to be 
there, with the World Cup and Bastille Day. I am 
the proud owner of a mortgage and a home with a 
guest room here in Golden, if anyone comes 
through!” # Kathy Donohue-de Souza (des- 
ouza@batelnet.bs) writes, “Our family has just 
grown with the addition of Paul Joseph on March 
13,1999. Paul and his sister, Meghan (3), are enjoy¬ 
ing living in the Bahamas. We have been here for 
almost three years now. My husband and I are both 
physicians at the only private hospital in the 
Bahamas, Doctors Hospital. I have been working 
here ever since finishing my residency training in 
physical medicine and rehabilitation at Columbia 
Presbyterian Medical Center in NYC, where I was 
resident. My husband, Pablo, is an anesthesiologist. 
We don’t get many Middlebury visitors here, but 
our door is always open!” * Tim Jaeger was 
recently appointed the athletic director at Episcopal 
High School in Alexandria,VA. He reports that 
John Hersperger is an attorney in Morristown, 

NJ. # Thomas Robertson has been named a 



2 

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Fall 73 
















WEDDINGS 



T Noelle Bujold '88 and Quinn Pollock '90 
were married on March 5 in an on-snow 
ceremony, followed by a full day of skiing 
at Lost Lake in Whistler, British Columbia. 
The bride wore her veil and flowers duct- 
taped to her ski helmet, of course. Joe 
Bujold '60, father of the bride, displays an 
antique Middlebury banner with the new¬ 
lyweds. 


▲ Unfurling the banner at Shelburne Farms following the August 8, 1998, mar¬ 
riage of Barbie Atwood and Alex Cobb '95 were (front) Drew Hayes '95, Peter 
Poison '95, Greg Boosin '94, Steve Reale '94, Ryan Benedict '95, (second row) 
Ann Amstutz '96, Andy Roebuck '95, Doris Nagel Sullivan (Bread Loaf '69), the 
newlyweds, Andy Cobb '02, Heather Fremgen Smith '95, Jen Kahn Hamilton 
'96, (standing) Tyler Lincoln '96, Jud Bartlett '95, Andy Enright '95, Karen Engler 
Bartlett '95, J.J. Gilmartin '92, Matt Baker '97, Wright Frank '95, Bob Labick 
'93, Liz Siris '95, Jeff Pare '95, Lesley Tucker '95, Ray Strong '91, Dan Haley '95, 
Jon Hanlon '93, Christine Waasdorp '94, Matt Hamilton '95, Kara Sweeney '95, 
Dudley Winthrop '94, Gloria Ehrenberg '95, Ryan Jennings '93, Steve Quinn '91, 
Ian Smith '96, Meghan Kilroy '95, and Dave "Chowda" Erickson #25 '96. The 
newlyweds are both at Harvard, Barbie working on a master's in liberal studies 
and Alex an MBA. 


►The marriage of Lucie Ide '97 and 
Humberto Garcia Sjogrim '96 took place 
on March 20, with a Mead Chapel cake 
being enjoyed by Anne Pomeroy '97, Scott 
Davis '97, Kathy Garcia-Sjogrim '00, the 
newlyweds, Sandro Wulff '95, Javier Marin- 
Alvarado, Amil Ramanaden '97, (back) 
Natasha Causton '96, Isabelle Ortega '94, 
Jordan Gudebski '95, Maria Marin- 
Alvarado, Glyn Trevillion '93, Leah 
Schaeffer '99, Andres Fontao '96, Craig 
Hanson '03, Ann Hanson, John Hanson, 
Matt Hanson, Jim Rubright, Kathy 
Rubright, Agnes Tarashev, Riikka Pakkala 
'95, and Nikola Tarashev '96. 
















► Meredith King '94 and Matthew 
Riordan '93 celebrated their August 8, 
1998, marriage in Chicago with Mike 
Mannozzi '93, Manny Montes '93, the 
newlyweds, Jen Poinier Ballinger '91, 
Crystal Reitsma '95, Evie Holley '94, and 
Jenny Peterson '94. The wedding took 
place at North Park Univ., where Meredith 
is a development associate. Matt is a com¬ 
puter technician at the Univ. of Chicago. 


<4 Middlebury was well represented at the 
August 8, 1998, marriage of Lauren Appel 
'97 and David Curry '96. With them were 
(front row) Jennifer Burrell '97, the newly¬ 
weds, Tim Curry '93, (second row) Shenna 
Bellows '97, Zac Stillerman '97, Amanda 
Shoemaker '97, Emily Onasch '97, Jen Gelb 
'97, Karen Lewis '97, Justin Elicker '97, Sue 
Ingersoll Clough '65, John Clough '63, 
(third row) Christina Morss '97, Liz 
Ganschow '97, Amy Flanders '97, Alyson 
Cucci '98, (fourth row) Dave Wolman '96, 
Scott Morgan '96, Jason Dimmig '96, Jeff 
Rea '97, Gabi Belfort '96, Petra Stuehmeier 
'96, Matt Leidecker '96, Stu Williamson 
'97, John Felton '99, Doug Griffith '96, 

Alex Kloman Southworth (M.A. English 
'92), Peter Southworth (M.A. English '92), 
and Chris Noll (M.A. English '87). The new¬ 
lyweds are living in Jackson Hole, WY, 



A The Sleeper put in an appearance at 
Sugarloaf/USA in Maine, following the July 
31 marriage of Kate Webber '94 and 
Samuel Punderson. Overcome by the heat 
were Peter N. Webber Jr. '93, Peter N. 
Webber Sr. '57, Suzi M. Webber '88, the 
newlyweds, Frank Punderson '55, Sue 
Heyer Byers '55, (second row) Sally Keefe 
'93, Chris "Flash" Clark '92, Bruce Byers 
'55, Jill Madden '87, Martha Punderson 
Graf '85, Ingrid Punderson '88, Woody 
Jackson '70, Colin Leonard '92, Kadie 
Falso Leonard '94, Patricia Judah Palmer 
'57, Charles Palmer '57, (third row) David 
Graf '85, Chris Riley Willcox '94, (fourth 
row) Karen Engler Bartlett '95, Judson 
Bartlett '95, Booth Hodde '94, John 
Anderson '94, Kirsten Morbeck '94, 

George Putnam '94, Amy L. Hansen '94, 
Naomi Moskowitz Hodde '94, Porter Fox 
'94, Mike Thompson '94, (back row) 
Jeremy Hertzig '94, Christopher Marshall 
'94, Mike Hussey '99, Critter Thompson 
'94, Aaron Ambuske '94, Barney Hodges 
'91, and John Ogden '89. 















► Celebrating the August 1, 1998, 
marriage ofTizz (Elizabeth) Strachan 
'90 and Scott Miller in Sun Valley, ID, 
were Pam Adelman '90, Steph 
Cooper '90, the newlyweds, Nicky 
Biddle '86, Betsy Winchester '90, Jill 
Skovron '90, Edith Her '87, (second 
row) Bud Liddell '91, Mark Maxwell 
'90, Katie Ray '89, Damon Webber 
'90, Joe Brown '90, Kristen Peterjohn 
Brown '90, Nonie Dorschel '90, 
Suzanne Carlson '90, Kelly Smith 
Feldman '90, Richard Feldman '91, 
Skye Garrett Ryon '90, YoungHae 
Chu '90, and Tom Dabney '93. Scott 
is a furniture maker and Tizz teaches 
high school government and history 
at the Wood River High School in 
Hailey, ID. 


M Courtney McDonnell '89 and Gene Visco 
got a lift from their friends following their 
marriage on May 23, 1998, in Garden City, 
NY. Hoisting the newlyweds are Wendy 
McDonnell Hale '88, Alison Steele Carrier 
'89, Paige Pierson '89, Alison Evans Ney 
'89, Lucy Henderson '89, Gabriela Artavia 
'89, Andrea Salzman '89, Michael Choi 
'89, Tom Nuovo '85, John Mackin '89, 

Chris O'Brien '89, and MaryBeth Comerci 
Nuovo '89. The newlyweds live in L.A., 
where Courtney is an executive at a film 
production company, A Band Apart. 


«4 Mary McKelvey '90 and Chris Bercaw were married 
on July 18, 1998. Celebrating with them in 
Minneapolis were Aradhana Kumar, Karan Capoor '90, 
the newlyweds, Phil Oldham '90, Lovisa Johnsson '90, 
and Kim Bradley '90. In July 1999, the newlyweds 
moved to Europe, where Chris will continue practicing 
international corporate law with Dorsey & Whitney, 

LLP, in Brussels, Belgium. Mary may continue teaching 
English as a Second Language and will be hosting visi¬ 
tors for two or three years. 















◄ No question about it, the bridegroom 
was riding on air following the marriage of 
Marjorie Tyndall '91 and Florentine Hoelker 
on September 26, 1998. Friends and levi- 
tators gathering in Evanston, IL, included 
Anne Schott '92, Liz Hopper '91, Melissa 
Menta '91, Judy Levenson '91, Chris 
Munion '91, and the happy couple, now 
living in Chicago. 



►The October 24, 1998, gathering in Washington, DC, for the marriage of Jeannie 
Nelson and Viraj Mirani '92 included Mary-Beth Marcotte '92, Nick Tcherepnin '92, 
Cynthia Brown '92, Sandy Palmer '92, the newlyweds, (back) Brian Schilling '92, 
Elizabeth and John Zehner '87, Sara Weale '92, Chris Faranetta, and Janine Rubitski 
'92. The newlyweds live in Vienna, VA, while Viraj works at St. Maxens & Co., an 
international trade consulting firm, and Jeannie works in child psychiatry at the 
National Institutes of Health. 

▼ The June 12 marriage of Mary Hogan and Paul Wilcox '91 took place in 
Parsippany, NJ. On hand for the festivities were (front) Mark Wilcox '86, the newly¬ 
weds, Grace Garcia Lessing '91, Andrew Peach '91, (back) John Dahl '91, Elizabeth 
Wilcox Snow '89, James Wilcox '93, Bob Anderson '91, Anthony Storm '91, Robert 
Martin '52, Mark Galiette '79, Laurie Schaecher, and Dennis Schaecher '91. Living in 
NYC, Paul is a product manager for Member-Works Inc. and Mary is an editor of 
children's books at Disney. 














partner in McCarter ik English LLP, NJ s oldest and 
largest law firm. He and wife Pamela live in 
Summit, NJ, with children Meredith and William. 

# Christine Langlois married Douglas Herrick 
in April on the beach in Maine. * Middlebury-ites 
gathered in Wethersfield, CT, on May 22 to cele¬ 
brate the marriage of Laura Gworek and John 
King. Among the guests toasting the happy couple: 
Mary Sue Holland Dehn, Jennifer Lawrence 
Horan, Deborah Vehse Lund, Christine 
Langlois, Cathy Perillo, Betsy Thompson 
Serlemitsos (who came all the way from Africa), 
Kristin Roberts Asbury, Melissa Marquardt, 
Karen Belinski ’87, Bill Leeson, and Heather 
Karlson ’87. Laura and John have moved to 
Sacramento, CA, where John works in sales for 
Prestone. 


87 


Class Secretary: Ann Christie Gusiff 
(clothestd@aol.com), 4402 El Camino 
Corto, La Canada Flintridge, CA 
91 Oil; and Scott Langerman 
(scott.langerman@jturner.com), 1098 Rosedale Rd., 
Atlanta, GA 30306. 


Don Hindman (ddh@clarkfoodservice.com) lives 
in suburban Chicago with wife Maron and chil¬ 
dren Charlie (3) and Hadley (10 mos.). Don says he 
is “very happy to have quit practicing law to join 
the family distribution business, which is much 
more fulfilling than trying to beat someone’s brains 
in day in and day out! I stay in touch with lots of 
Midd alums, like John Aymar and Clifton 
Romig. through the recently established Dissipated 
8 Alumni Association. We are starting to plan the 
D-8’s 50th Anniversary Reunion for Homecoming 
2002!” * Lynn Feldpausch Zipf celebrated her 
35th birthday by running the Burlington,VT, 
marathon in great time, much to the delight of her 
children Elizabeth (3 1/2) and Matthew (2). * 
Living in Brighton, MA, Christine McCrorey is 
finishing a master’s in public administration. * 
Sharon Fray-Witzer is practicing law on her 
own in Boston. * Ramiro Prudencio 
(ramiro_prudencio@bm.com) sends greetings 
from Brazil. “As of January, I am living in Sao 
Paulo, after having spent nearly five years in Chile. 
Sao Paulo is a long, long way from Middlebury. 
With nearly 20 million people, this is the third 
largest city in the world. As for Brazil, it is a wild, 
fun, beautiful place. No one I can report on from 
here and do not know if any classmates or Midd 
alums are in Brazil. Laura Mullahy returned to 
the U.S. from Chile and is living in Boston. Would 
love to catch up with any Midd kids visiting 
Brazil.” * Isabel Abislaiman writes: “After five 
years of federal civil rights litigation and a very 
brief solo period, I started in the labor and 
employment div. of Axtmayer Adsuar Muniz & 
Goyco, a medium-sized corporate law firm here in 
San Juan.” Her e-mail address is iabislaiman@ 
aamg.org.” * Lisa Preston Bailey is “still in 
Honolulu, teaching Spanish, enjoying Paradise— 
and I especially love spending time with Natasha 
(3). Heather Gaudreau Lum and I took our stu¬ 
dents to Russia in June. We had a wonderful time, 
but it will likely be our last trip as Iolani School 
has discontinued the Russian program.” * 

Recently named product manager for 
Hammermill Premiums, Scott Stone is based in 
East Granby, CT. He was previously a manager for 
the Springhill and Carolina brands of International 
Paper. * A specialist in plastic and reconstructive 
hand surgery. Dr. Kimberley Lloyd O’Sullivan 
has had international assignments involving recon¬ 


structive hand surgery and pediatric hand and cleft 
lip surgery. * Fully embracing the international 
school lifestyle. David and Sheryl Cole ’89 
Stearns (dsteams@nist.ac.th) are moving on from 
Zambia to a UN-related school in Bangkok, 
Thailand. “We will be in Bangkok after August. 
David will be teaching history and business and 
organizational management at the New 
International School of Bangkok, and I will be 
studying for a master’s in education through Bath 
Univ. (UK) and doing ESL training.” * Jacques 
Heim, who founded Diavolo Dance Theatre in 
Los Angeles in 1992, was recently named one of 
the 100 Coolest People in L.A. by Buzz magazine. 
A prof, at UCLA teaching intensive movement for 
actors, Jacques is also in residence at CA State Univ. 
at L.A., teaching improvisational movement. # 
Since lack of appropriate attire is a major obsta¬ 
cle for people trying to get off welfare and into 
the work force, Ann Christie GusifF started 
Clothes The Deal in 1995 in her garage, dispers¬ 
ing 4,000 items of clothing to about 800 recipi¬ 
ents in the first year. Four years later, nearly 
50,000 suits, dresses, ties, and shoes have gone to 
about 10,000 needy job candidates. Ann recently 
stepped away from day-to-day operations, but 
she remains active as chair of the executive 
board. * Steve and Kate Felstiner Lowe were 
married in October 1998. They have had an 
extended honeymoon, since Steve’s job in trading 
precious metals took them to London right after 
their wedding. Kate is working in an advertising 
firm. * It was a Valentine’s Day wedding for Angela 
Nielsen and Tim Kaliban.Tim is an assistant VP 
of client support with Equifax Inc. in Tampa, FL; 
Angela is pursuing a degree at DePaul Univ. in 
Chicago. * Elizabeth Starr and Joseph Hassett 
were married on May 15 at Canisius College, 
where Joe received his MBA. He is general manag¬ 
er of Buerk Tool and Machine Corp. in Buffalo, 
while Elizabeth works for the YWCA. * Bruce 
and Sharon Ballard Richardson welcomed 
daughter Hannah on January 4. She joins sister 
Lindsay (3 1/2).The Richardsons live in 
Charleston, SC, where Sharon works in land 
preservation. “In the last three years, I worked with 
landowners who have voluntarily protected over 
10,000 acres of land in coastal SC.” * Lee and 
Marty Ulrich Dayton announce the birth of son 
Nicholas Everett Dayton on March 5,1999. They 
live in San Francisco, where Marty works for 
Power Bar. # Daughter Chiara Genieve Evans 
joined Sally Evans and husband Matthias 
Stopfkuchen-Evans on May 30. They live in 
Munich, Germany, where Sally is on maternity 
leave from the Bertelsmann Music Group, a unit of 
BMG Entertainment. Sally welcomes e-mail mes¬ 
sages from friends at 101716.2207@ 
compuserve.com. * Doug Fischer and wife 
Janine were joined by daughter Sydney Patricia on 
June 22. Sydney’s sister, Alexandra, is 2 1/2. Doug 
has been an attorney with the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency in NYC for nine years. The 
focus of his work is on legal issues relating to the 
cleanup of toxic waste sites in NY and the 
Caribbean. * After graduating from Harvard 
Business School this spring. Carolin Pu 
Archibald and husband Tim ’88 moved into their 
newly renovated house in Cambridge, MA—just in 
time to welcome first child Logan Fan-Shen 
Archibald on July 24. Carolin started work at 
Boston Consulting Group this fall. * On June 13, 
Vicki and Scott Langerman welcomed daughter 
Jennifer Elizabeth to the family She joins big 
brother Jack. 


Class Secretaries: Anya Puri 
(apuri@Jawrenceville.org), 2549 Main 
St., Lawrenceville, NJ 08648; and Claire 
Gwatkin (claire_gwatkin@gap.com), 

4284 24th St., San Francisco, CA 94114. 

Roberta Sengelmann-Keshen 

(rsengel@imgate.wustl.edu) writes: “I’m still prac¬ 
ticing and teaching dermatologic surgery at 
Washington Univ. School of Medicine/Barnes 
Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, MO, and loving it! I’m 
still commuting to see my husband (Tamir Keshen 
UVA ’89) on weekends, as he finishes his general 
surgery residency at the Univ. of IA.Visited Emilie 
Riggs-Laurent in November in Paris. She has 
three adorable kids now.” Roberta recently remi¬ 
nisced with John Goebel at a Midd gathering 
with Pres. McCardell held at the home of John’s 
parents. * The Middlebury sweatshirt made its 
appearance on the May 7 episode of Nash Bridges. 
Shawn Ryan (mfkidd@aol.com), executive story 
editor on the show, wrote in May: “For those of us 
familiar with the ubiquitous Midd sweatshirts, it 
will be very recognizable; for others, I’m not sure if 
you’ll be able to read the entire ‘Middlebury’ due 
to crinkles. I’m currently on hiatus on Nash, and 
have a few weeks off before I go back for my third 
season on the show. I’m also writing a pilot for Fox 
and writing an independent short film that a friend 
is going to direct in Kansas in September. So after 
being unemployed for five years, things are good 
for me at the moment.” * Dina WolkofF. an 
administrative assistant in Minneapolis, did con¬ 
struction work and tutored children in Metcalfe, 
MS, for a week last March. As part of a Global 
Volunteers team, she helped to construct a perfor¬ 
mance stage for a city park, tutored kids, wired 
telephone lines, planted flowers, and painted street 
signs. “Working with the children brought me joy 
daily,” she reports, and she found the local people 
“fiin, open, casual, easy to be with.” * Bill Warren 
has been elevated to partner at Jones & Askew, LLP, 
in Atlanta. With extensive experience in patenting 
of biomedical inventions, he belongs to the firm’s 
biomedical and chemical technology group. He has 
his M.S. in molecular genetics (GA State Univ.), as 
well as an MBA (Emory). Bill and wife Margaret 
(Gibbs) ’89 are Atlanta residents. * Brian Foss 
recently started his own construction company in 
Jackson Hole, WY, where he has been since 1990. 
He also completed building his own home. * 
Daughter Caroline arrived to parents Chris and 
Kristin Crowder Dollase on February 5. Her 
godfather is George Ritchie. * Katherine 
Grubbs is living in northern VA, where husband 
Gerald Donovan is a psychiatrist at the Marine 
Base in Quantico,VA. Daughter Courtney (3 in 
June) was joined by brother Daniel in March. 
Katherine is working on a dissertation on strategies 
for teaching writing at the college level. * Susie 
and John Walker report the arrival of third child 
Ella in June ’98. “Our house is certainly frill and 
noisy, with Jackson (5),Addy (2), and Ella. And I 
started a business in December, called e-walker. It’s 
Web design and on-line marketing.” John and crew 
live in Lancaster, PA, and can be reached at jwalk- 
er@e-walker.com. * Michael and Carolyn 
Haviland (M.A. English ’98) Obel-Omia wrote to 
share their joy at the birth of son Jackson Campbell 
Obel-Omia on June 20 in Boston. # Tim and 
Carolin Pu ’87 Archibald are living in their newly 
renovated home in Cambridge, MA, with son 
Logan Fan-Shen Archibald, who was born on July 
24. Tim had six weeks of paternity leave from Kao 
Design Group in Somerville. He reports that Mike 



78 Middlebury Magazine 









Dow and wife Katherine welcomed a daughter, 
Natalie, in February.They live in Portland, ME, 
where Mike owns his own business in computer 
consulting. # Esra Ansay and Clark Munnell were 
married on April 23 at the Essex House in NYC. 
Clark is VP in private client services at Goldman, 
Sachs, and he is also the founder of Patch the 
Apple, a NYC fund-raising group supporting 
neighborhood volunteer organizations. * Noelle 
Bujold and Quinn Pollock ’90 were married 
March 5 at Lost Lake in Whistler, British 
Columbia.Their on-snow ceremony was followed 
by a full day of skiing—complete with the bride 
wearing a veil and flowers duct-taped to her ski 
helmet. (See photo.) Now living in Arlington,VA, 
Noelle recently completed an assignment on VP 
Gores National Security Staff and has returned to 
CIA Headquarters, where she is senior duty officer 
in the operations center. Quinn 
(qpollock@aol.com) is a veterinary pharmaceutical 
rep for J. A. Webster. * On June 19, Amanda 
Marcantonio and Michael Reynal were married 
in Southport, CT. Michael got his MBA from 
Dartmouth last spring and became VP managing 
emerging-market portfolios atWafra Investment 
Advisory Services in NYC. 

Class Secretaries: Kristen Canfield 
McBumey, 7141 Lincoln ParkWay, 

S. W., Seattle, WA 98136; and Timothy 
O’Shea (tim.o’shea@fmr.com), 1400 
Lowell Rd., Concord, MA 01742. 

Many thanks to all of you ’89ers who made the 
trek to Bread Loaf for our 10th Reunion. The 
weekend could not have been better! Scores of our 
classmates took advantage of the beautiful weather 
and got the most out of the return toVT. Between 
the Friday night festivities, Saturdays College-spon¬ 
sored events, the rockin’ band on Saturday night, 
and the extra day due to the holiday weekend, 
those of us who attended found out that we re not 
as young as we used to be! Our class won the 
Parton Family Award, presented to the reunion class 
before the 25th with the greatest increase in partic¬ 
ipation. Many thanks to the College for putting on 
quite a show. But most of all, thanks to all of you 
who came back to Midd. For those of you who 
missed out, its only four and a half years ’till our 
15th! # Hayden Cutler and family made the trek 
to reunion. Hayden runs a stone and marble 
importing business in VA. # Phil “Zack” Conner 
was also there. Zack and family just moved to NJ, 
where Zack is the director of the Prudential Real 
Estate publishing unit. * Kirsten Ritzau made 
the effort to come all the way from Ketchum, ID. 
Kirsten sells real estate in Ketchum. # Kudos to 
Reid Payne for coming all the way from London, 
England. Reid is the executive director of 
StreetFeat, a theatre company whose primary goal 
is to produce theatre in public spaces. Reid recendy 
oversaw the Carnaby Street production of Waiting 
for Godot. # Congrats to newlyweds Janelle 
Moburg and Jay Leonard, who tied the knot 
weeks before the reunion. # Congrats also to 
Shelly and Graham Goldsmith, who braved the 
wilds ofVermont and then welcomed second 
daughter Lily Oliver on July 8. # Meg Beeman 
was in rare form on the dance floor during 
reunion, making the most out of her cross-country 
visit from San Francisco. Joining Meg from the Left 
Coast were Karl Mayer, Stu Maeder, and 
Maureen Watson. * Ivar Henningson, who 
recently graduated from Babson with his MBA, was 
also in attendance. Ivar is busy preparing for the 


2000 Eco-Challenge, teaming up with the Spanish 
Team, “Sin Dulces,” and hoping to help it repeat its 
top 10 finish from 1999. * Ernie Stone, who also 
made the trip, runs his own law practice in 
Hamilton, MA. Ernie is very active in local com¬ 
munity events, and he was named “1999 Can 
Man” for leading a recycling effort which raised 
over $11,000 for the Hamilton- Wenham Little 
League. # Seatdelites who made the trek to Bread 
Loaf included Susanne Ecker, Sue Haviland, 
Anne Cavendar. Cathy and JefF Somers, Scott 
and Kris Canfield McBurney, and Adam Ross. 
Anne will soon find herself working in Beijing; Sue 
and Susanne teach in Seattle; Jeff is a marketing 
manager in the music division at Amazon.com; Jeff 
and Cathy just had their second child, daughter 
Audrey. * KC Koch Reeves sent her best wishes 
from Bethesda, MD, where she is on leave from 
Arthur Andersen with her second child, Sam, born 
on tax day. # Bonnie and Keith Pennell brought 
the newest addition to their family, daughter Lucy, 
to reunion. They recently moved from NYC to 
Saddle River, NJ. * Troy Haynie, who teaches at 
St. Luke’s in New Canaan, planned to enjoy work¬ 
ing at a camp over the summer. # Tom Gleason 
has started his residency in the cardiothoracic pro¬ 
gram at UPenn Medical Center. # Richard 
Morse is living in New Haven, CT, having spent 
several years with the NOLS programs. He’s plan¬ 
ning to apply his NOLS experience to corporate 
development/organizational behavior consulting. # 
Gregory and Laura Andrews Alberton have left 
their posts in orthopedic surgery at the Mayo 
Clinic and moved to San Francisco. # Craig and 
Karen Lane Anderson recently moved from MI 
to Charleston, SC. Karen is an outpatient Physical 
Therapist at the Medical Univ. of SC, and Craig is 
a marketing director with Hill-Rom s long-term 
care division. # Nicole Zungoli lives outside 
Philadelphia, PA, with her husband and two chil¬ 
dren. * Mark Dimond is a senior VP at First 
USA Partners, where he is busy seeking Internet 
partners for the First USA credit card brand. Mark 
and wife Carrie are proud homeowners in Ashland, 
MA. # Marci Griffith is a principal with Fallon 
Hines & O’Connors Investment Services Group in 
Boston. According to a recent profile in Banker & 
Tradesman, she likes deciphering a building’s worth 
and conveying that knowledge to investors. Her sis¬ 
ters, Karen Griffith ’90 and Kimberly Griffith 
Hyland ’93, sell stocks and equity investments to 
institutional investors. * Five friends gathered from 
all parts of the country last March for a mini- 
Midd reunion in the San Juan Islands ofWA state: 
Kristen Lindquist from ME, Margie 
McGinnis from MA, Sarah Hower from CO, 
Julia Morse from WA, and Cindy Wasser from 
VA. Cindy (grampus@erols.com) writes: “We had 
a great visit, and hiked, hot-tubbed, painted, feast¬ 
ed, and generally relaxed. Hard to believe it’s been 
10 years since we all graduated!” # Laura 
Andrews Alberton (lalberton@pacbell.net) 
moved to San Francisco in July for a fellowship in 
orthopedic surgery. “The summer has been cooler 
than MN—I hope the winter isn’t. Looking for¬ 
ward to seeing some Midd friends here.” # 

Michael Cohen has opened a law office in 
Cumberland, MD, where he lives with wife 
Moriah. * While working on an M.A. in educa¬ 
tion through Bath Univ. (UK), Sheryl Cole 
Stearns (stearns@zamnet.zm) is doing ESL train¬ 
ing in Bangkok, Thailand. For more news of Sheryl 
and David ’87, please turn to 1987. * Tina Wayne 
and Robert Berman were married on October 
31,1998, in Altoona, PA. Robert is president of 


Rasta Imposta and Tina is the owner of the Mod 
Hatter.They live in Glendora, NJ. * Dean and 
Diane Skenas Maimonis and daughter Alexis 
welcomed a new family member, Elizabeth, on 
November 6,1998. ♦ A son, Luke, joined parents 
Noelle Smith and Gary Stone on December 9, 
1998. * Pete and Kris Eardensohn Stelter are 
happy to announce the arrival of daughter 
Gretchen Hannah on March 8. # Christopher and 
Adrienne Buda Anderson welcomed first child 
Katherine Cora Anderson on June 5. # Carl and 
Catherine Butts Vikstrom announce the recent 
birth of their first child, son Lars KelloggVikstrom. 
♦ July 12 was the birthday of Elliott Jameson, first 
child of Jennifer and Rob Snow. 

Class Secretaries: Mary Stechschulte 
(marysteck@hotmail. com), Cranhrook 
Academy of Art, P.O. Box 801, 
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303; and Paul 
E. Needham (pau1_e._needham@scudder.com), 

43 Berry wood Ln., South Hamilton, MA 01982. 

Dmra Byrne (jpglab@gateway.net) reports that 
she recently moved back from Australia. She and 
husband John Graham live in YardJey, PA. She’s a 
consultant for Hewitt Associates in Bridgewater, 

NJ. # Karan Capoor received has MBA from 
Darden at the Univ. ofVA last May. He has gone to 
work for Price Waterhouse Coopers in Fairlakes, 
VA. ♦ Greg Frezados reports: “All is well in 
Chicago. Became a financial adviser with 
PaineWebber two years ago after several of practic¬ 
ing law. Also active with the Field Museum board, 
thanks to Doug Meyer. Finally, anyone who 
knows the whereabouts of Matt Stewart, please 
contact me at gfrezados@yahoo.com. ♦ Tim 
Berry is the new director of floor whip operations 
in the office of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay 
(R—Texas). * Alexander Perry, assistant district 
attorney of Rensselaer County (NY), was recendy 
appointed to the board of directors of the Hoosick 
Falls Health Center. He also belongs to the Capital 
District Civil Wir Round Tible and the Society for 
Creative Anachronism. Alex and wife Beth live in 
North Hoosick. ♦ Gary Sedlik (gary@lahockey. 
com) is a litigation associate in the Los Angeles 
offices of Dewey Ballantine LLP. “In my time away 
from the office, I’ve been playing a lot of ice hock¬ 
ey and I started up a Web site for those interested 
in playing hockey in southern CA: www.lahockey. 
com. I’d love to hear from any classmates passing 
through L.A.!” #■ Todd Olinger (todd.olinger 
@judicial.state.colorado.edu) received graduate 
degrees in business and law from the Univ. of CO 
in May 1998. He has been serving as a law clerk to 
Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis of the Colorado 
Supreme Court. This fall, he’s practicing environ¬ 
mental law at Davis, Graham & Stubbs in Denver. 
His avid interest in conflict resolution—fostered by 
Midd Prof. Russell Leng ’60—continues, particu¬ 
larly in light of the Kosovo conflict. He is still a 
reserve captain in the USAF, having served four 
years on active duty as a space intelligence officer 
after graduating from Midd. # Kelly Smith 
Feldman is busy with Catherine (3) and 
Alexander (1). Husband Richard ’91 runs their 
Ketchum, ID, bike shop, specializing in custom and 
high-end bicycles, especially cyclocross.They also 
sell nationally and have just launched a Web page 
with a catalog at www.durance.com. Kelly contin¬ 
ues to do photography—mostly in the winter, since 
the store is busiest in the summer. # Rachel 
Wigglesworth is in Jackson Hole,WY, doing coy¬ 
ote research at the Teton Science School. She is 




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Fall 79 
































happy, but hard to reach! * Lovisa Johnsson is 
now happily ensconced in CT, working for an 
Internet company. She makes frequent trips to 
Bermuda and Spain. * Elizabeth Toder spent a 
month in Argentina over the summer, which 
included five weeks as a financial consultant to a 
microfinance organization in Buenos Aires, 
Argentina. She brought her skis for southern hemi¬ 
sphere skiing. * Eric and Diane Peterson 
Seaborn welcomed son Graham Evan on 
Mothers Day, May 9. * Annette and Art 
McAleer are happy to announce the arrival of son 
Ian Nikolaj, who was born on July 3. Living in 
Newfields, NH, Art makes the daily commute to 
Boston, where he’s a partner in a small M&A advi¬ 
sory shop whose bread and butter business is in 
cross-border (largely Europe/U.S.) transactions. 
They’ve kept in touch with Mary and Rob 
Hansen. Carolyn and Mike Lane, and Ken and 
Wendy Williams Davis, and would love to hear 
from other classmates. * Chris Awtrey and Sloane 
Stephens ’91 were married on June 21,1997, in 
Mead Chapel. # For news of the marriage of 
Noelle Bujold ’88 and Quinn Pollock, please turn 
to the 1988 column.Their wedding photo also 
appears in this issue. * Josie Parr and C. David 
Welling were married on October 31,1998.They 
live in San Francisco, where David is chief of staff 
of institutional services at Charles Schwab and Co. 
Josie is a brand manager at Clorox in Oakland. 

Class Secretaries: Bill Driscoll 
(wndnsc@aol.com), 743 Wildwood Rd., 
Atlanta, GA 30324; and Kate J. Kelley 
(kelley_kate@liotniail.coni), 2305 White 
Pine Dr., Durham, NC 27705. 

Since completing a graduate program in civil engi¬ 
neering at CO State Univ. (Fort Collins, CO) in 
1997, Darcy Noss Molnar has been working as a 
postdoctoral fellow doing research in rainfall-runoff 
modeling. This October she was moving to 
Bratislava, Slovakia, to do research in flood forecast¬ 
ing at the Slovak Institute of Technology. Darcy and 
husband Peter, who is from Slovakia, have a daugh¬ 
ter, Monika (1). # After several years at the 
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, 
Lesley Humphreys has been named curator of 
history and research for the NY State Historical 
Assoc, and the Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown, 
NY. * Dave Rogers and his pal, Greg King, 
geared up for their fourth season as co-owners of 
The Lakehouse, a hot dining spot on Lake 
Bomoseen, which they revived in 1996. They work 
seven days a week during the six-month season 
that the restaurant is open and spruce up the 
premises during the off season. * Paul Testa 
(paultl7827@aol.com) started his first year at 
Dartmouth Medical School in August. * Tom 
Chambers (tchamber@emma.troy.ny.us) “The big 
news is that I finished (finally) my Ph.D. in history 
this spring at William and Mary. I’m currently 
teaching as an adjunct at Siena College in 
Loudonville, NY, and summer session courses at 
Skidmore up in Saratoga. I’m searching for the elu¬ 
sive tenure-track job and revising my dissertation 
(comparing Northern and Southern resorts in 
antebellum America—a great read if you’re suffer¬ 
ing from insomnia) for publication. My wife teach¬ 
es history at Emma Willard School in Troy, NY, so 
I’m basically a kept man. Not a bad life, since it 
gives me plenty of time to read and write.” 

. . .Susan Dalrymple and Jordan Sullivan ’93 were 
married November 14,1998, in Ridgefield, CT. 
Susan is director, estate jewelry, at William Doyle 



Galleries in NYC. Jordan is in foreign exchange 
options at SBC Wirburg Dillon Read in Stamford. 
♦ It was a June wedding for Annelliott Willis and 
James Nida.Jim got his MBA from Tuck at 
Dartmouth and works for NovaCare in 
Philadelphia. # Kelly Crawford and Andrew 
Friendly met at the Democratic National 
Convention in NYC in 1992, when they were 
working on Bill Clinton’s national advance staff. 

On June 19, they were married in Chatham, MA. 
Now studying for a master’s in management at 
Northwestern, Andrew worked in the White 
House from 1997 to 1998, as a senior adviser to the 
special envoy to the Americas. * Cassie Robbins 
and Thomas Clayton were married in Dorset, VT, 
on June 19. While working on her master’s in 
media studies at NYU, Cassie is a director of pro¬ 
motion marketing at Comedy Central, the cable 
television network in Manhattan. * On June 26, 
Katherine Miller and Ben Danson tied the knot 
at a home ceremony in Llanerch, PA. The newly¬ 
weds are both teachers at Penncrest High School in 
Media—she teaches math and he teaches American 
history. * Daughter Camille Cardwell Buffaloe 
joined David and Catherine Cardwell Buffaloe 
on May 27. Catherine, David, Camille, and their 
dog,Valkyrie, live in Germany, where David is sta¬ 
tioned with the U.S. Army. # It is with great sad¬ 
ness that we must report the tragic death of James 
Appleby on June 9 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We 
send the condolences of the class to his parents, Mr. 
and Mrs. James E. Appleby, and to all his family and 
friends. A memorial appears elsewhere in this issue. 











Class Secretary: Justin Ayers 
(justin.ayers@frnr.com), 660 Main St., 
#4, Melrose, MA 02176. 


Tabitha Jenkins, of NYC, received the Judge 
Amandus Brackman Moot Court Prize for profi¬ 
ciency in briefing and arguing cases in Moot Court 
at Washington Univ., St. Louis School of Law. She 
received aJ.D. in May. * Jonathan Freirich grad¬ 
uated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical 
College on June 13, receiving the title of Rabbi 
and the Master of Hebrew Letters degree. He also 
studied in Israel and will receive an M.A. in reli¬ 
gious studies from Hebrew Univ. The first student 
to complete the Rabbis for College Campus train¬ 
ing specialization, he’s now serving as assistant 
director of the Hillel at the Univ. of AZ in Tucson. 
* John Doty has been promoted to legislative 
director by Rep.Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). He joined 



Seven Middlehury MBAs from Tuck-Dartmouth 
(see 1992 column) 


the staff as an intern in 1994. * Rebecca 
SofFerman Buerkett has been hired by the 
Adirondack Aquatic Institute (AAI) as part-time 
technical and administrative assistant. Rebecca is an 
adjunct prof, of chemistry' at North Country' 
Community College. As part of her new job at 
AAI, she is evaluating slx years of water quality data 
taken from 21 lakes in NY’s Hamilton County'. * 
Elizabeth Bell is in Truckee, CA, teaching ele¬ 
mentary school. * Lori Ludington and Ryan 
Tranquilla exchanged vows on November 21 at 
the Presidio Chapel in San Francisco. Ryan is pro¬ 
gram associate for Poets and Writers Inc. in San 
Francisco, where the newlyweds live. Lori is prod¬ 
uct manager for Berkeley Systems. # To clear up a 
garbled item in the summer column. Sherry 
Pelkey Roper (ropers99@alum.darden.edu) 
informs us that she received her MBA from 
Darden, the Business School at UVA. She has start¬ 
ed a new job as assistant product manager for 
Dentyne Gum at the candy division ofWarner 
Lambert Co., a major pharmaceuticals firm in 
Morris Plains, NJ. Husband Chris 
(croper@academic-travel.com) is now “all but dis¬ 
sertation” at UVA in a Ph.D. program in govern¬ 
ment and foreign affairs. While working on his dis¬ 
sertation research, he is working from their new 
home in Mt. Tabor, NJ, for a DC-based company, 
Academic Travel Abroad. They spent time in 
Cambodia in the summer and Chris was also in 
Mongolia. * Seven Middlebury grads got MBAs 
from Tuck-Dartmouth in June: Bill Tice, Margaret 
Terry ’94. Arthur Henderson, Mike Reynal ’88, 
John Rudge, Christer Wollmar ’93, and Chris 
McChesney ’93. Bill Tice (tice5@excite.com) is 
“looking forward to life in Boston, where the 
beach and ski slopes are much more proximate 
than either London or New York.” 

Class Secretaries: Anne C. Harris 
(aharris@jiienloschool.org), 650 Alameda 
de las Pulgas, San Carlos, CA 94071; 
and Dan Suratt (daniel.suratt@ibc.com), 

111 Hicks St., #2B, Brooklyn, NY 11201. 

Erik Carlson (ecarlsonl999@kellogg.nwu.edu): 
“After graduating from Kellogg Business School, I 
headed to Alaska for a month to grow a beard, live 
in a tent, and simply relax. My adventures there 
included hiking Denali’s backcountry, navigating 
the Gulkana’s whitewaters by raft, and sea-kayaking 
through ice-bergs off the Kenai Peninsula. I ’m now 
living in NYC and working as a manager in 
American Express’ Internet group. Please visit!” 
Angel Diaz recently opened his own shop, Solo 
Flamenco, in Miami, FL. He sells flamenco/Spanish 
dance accessories and souvenirs from Spain. Check 
out his Web site: www.soloflamenco.com. * Steve 
Prescott is in Boston, doing technology consulting 
for various firms in the area. # Chicago attorney 
Amanda dayman (clayman@mwe.com) and 
Thomas Levenberg were married on August 31, 
1997. * Gabriela Gergely and Michael Romano 
exchanged vows on September 12, 1998, at the 
Hotel Washington in DC. Gabriela is an immigra¬ 
tion attorney in VA: Michael is a telecommunica¬ 
tions attorney for Swidler & Bertin in DC. * The 
October 10,1998, marriage of Mary' Ruth Rzeszut 
and Timothy Craig took place in Seattle. Mary 
Ruth is a research dietitian for the Fred 
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center;Tim is an 
import pricing manager for K-Line America ship¬ 
ping company. * On June 12, Gracyn Robinson 
and Peter Whitman were married in 
Kennebunkport, ME. Living in Boston, she’s an 



80 Middlebury Magazine 
















PROFILE 


HAILING A TAXI 


C AROLYN Kuebler ’90 is the editor in chief of Rain Taxi , a literary jour¬ 
nal featuring book reviews, poems, interviews, and short stories. Created 
in 1995, the magazine, based in Minneapolis, is nonprofit and is devoted 
to “the healthy exchange of ideas about books.” Kuebler, an editor and writer, 
founded the magazine three years ago.To find out more, visit Rain Taxis Web site at 
www.rain taxi.com or write to Rain Taxi , P.O. Box 3840, Minneapolis, MN 55403. 


stopped by. Hollis is the librarian at the National 
Cathedral School in DC. * Kristen Roeder 
Smith has taken a new job as assistant director of 
legislative and public affairs at America’s Blood 
Centers, an association of community blood centers 
across the country. # The marriage of MeriBeth 
Hurley and Jeffrey Russo took place on April 10. 
They honeymooned in HI and are at home in 
Canaan, NY. MeriBeth is with Novalis in Albany; 
Jeff is with Berkshire Farm Center in Canaan. # 
Caroline Clutz and Mark Keeney exchanged 
vows on June 18 at Deer Valley Resort in Park 
City, UT. 


interior designer for an architecture firm and he’s 
an account manager. * Chip Muller and Dayna 
Safran were married in VT this July. Chip is a tele¬ 
vision journalist in Boston and Providence. Dayna 
entered Harvard’s graduate program in education 
this fall. 


94 


Class Secretaries: Kristen Roeder Smith 
(kristen_smith@ibm.net), 10401 
Grosvenor PL, 141012, Rockville, MD 
20852; and Scott Godes 
(sgodes@flol.com), 1320 N. Veitch St., 411837, 
Arlington, VA 22201. 


Hey, all! It was great to see everyone who could 
make it back to Middlebury for the reunion. Was it 
just me, or did it seem like the current crop of 
Midd kids have it pretty good—the Grille, a warm 
hockey arena, and a paved A-lot? It was a great 
weekend, good catching up with everyone. Did 
everyone see the streakers take a late night stroll 
through the barn? The guilty parties will remain 
nameless, but let’s just say that some things never 
change (think back to the Senior Week bonfire). # 
Chris Kemple and wife Jinmi left Seoul, Korea, 
this summer and moved to Philadelphia, where 
Chris entered Wharton’s MBA program this fall. # 
Greg Boosin also moved to Philadelphia to start 
his MBA at Wharton. * Ben Curtis moved to 
Prague in July to continue researching for his Ph.D. 
dissertation in political science. * Chris Carter, 
who is writing a novel, joins Ben in Prague. * 

After five years in the NY Change Management 
practice in Andersen Consulting, Teaque Lenahan 
(teaque_lenahan@hotmail.com) has returned to his 
home turf to pursue his MBA at the Kellogg 
School at Northwestern University. He is happy to 
report that the nonprofit corporation he and Ed 
Soh cofounded is running well without their direct 
involvement and thanks everyone for the support 
they have given to it. * Joining Teaque at Kellogg 
is Mandy Levenberg. Before leaving for school, 
Mandy planned to climb Macchu Picchu in Peru, 
exhaust all outdoor possibilities in CA, and spend 
two weeks in Tuscany, Italy. Before returning to 
Nepal and Tibet for two months, Phoebe Folger 
visited with Mandy and Vanessa Branch over the 
summer. In September, Phoebe started to work on 
a master’s in international public health at Boston 
Univ. * Brian and Amy Young’89 
DeChristopher have bought a house in Concord, 
MA. Brian, who works for Putnam Investments in 
Boston, has set up a Middlebury College group on 
PlanetAll.com to keep in touch with his 
Middlebury friends. * After finishing his second 
year of medical school, Josh Rucker went on 
vacation for the month of June, but first he hung 
out with Ken Mansfield (who is practicing cor¬ 
porate litigation) in HI for 10 days. * Jeff 
Herriott moved to Buffalo this summer to pursue 
his Ph.D. in music. * Sandy Durst moved to NJ 


to join a law practice. # Stacey Gannon left 
Seatde to start a master’s program in museum stud¬ 
ies at George Washington Univ. in DC. # Johanna 
Chapin left DC to begin a master’s degree in pub¬ 
lic health, with a concentration in reproductive and 
women’s health, at the Univ. of MI, Ann Arbor. “I 
have enjoyed seeing more of Jen Waaler and 
Lindsey Holmes Solorzano ’95, who are also in the 
Midwest (IL).” # Lu Zhengyuan recently joined 
Enhance Reinsurance as a VP. * Brendan 
O’Leary recently defended his thesis in organic 
chemistry at MIT and received his doctorate. In 
July, he began work at a biotech company, I GEN 
International, in Gaithersburg, MD. # Jennifer 
Partan Hansen was not only with us at reunion, 
but that same weekend she ran her first marathon 
in Burlington—the Vermont City Marathon. She 
reports that it was hot and hard, but a blast. # 

While at the reunion, Lesley Tomion, who is 
teaching in Brookline, MA, gleefully told us work¬ 
ing stiffs that she was enjoying her summer-long 
vacation, doing some traveling around the “Rust 
Belt” and Canada. * Malgorzata “Goska” 
Gnoinska-Heusch moved to San Francisco to 
get her M.A. in Japanese literature at Berkeley. She 
would love to hear from Midd alums in the area. 
Goska plans to do free-lance translating, while 
applying to grad schools in international relations. 
# Bo Wilmer defends his thesis in November and 
then will graduate with a master’s in biology. In the 
meantime, he has started his own GIS company— 
telecommuting from Bozeman, MT. * Keith 
Kelly recently retired as a professional Montana 
fishing guide in order to attend graduate school. # 
Brendan Donahue, of South Easton, MA, is the 
new head men’s soccer coach at Curry College in 
Milton, MA.The previous two years, Brendan was 
assistant men’s soccer coach atVassar College. # 
Meg Wright is an administrative assistant in the 
theater arts division at Boston University’s School 
for the Arts. She’s also a performing artist who has 
done a lot of stand-up comedy gigs, such as 
Katharine Hepburn in My Head, which was part of 
BU’s Festival of New Plays last March. She was 
quoted recently in Boston’s Bay Windows: “When I 
moved to Boston in 1994,1 started to write down 
thoughts about my coming out and they’ve 
become the basis for this one-woman show 
[Katharine Hepburn in My Head ]—my thoughts on 
coming out, on trying to meet women in Boston, 
on all the insecurities and anxieties that come 
along with dating and trying to establish yourself 
in some sort of community.” * In ME, Joel 
Thompson is a new associate with Preti, 

Flaherty, Beliveau, Pahios A' Haley. Joel earned his 
law degree from Harvard Law School in 1997. * 
Brendan Collins, who graduated from Vanderbilt 
Medical School in May, is a surgical intern at 
Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. * In DC, Lori 
Frolich (lfrohlil@aha.org) recently hosted a 
cocktail party; Scott Godes and Hollis Rudiger 


Class Secretaries: Wendy Russell (imts- 
sell@jemiboston.com), 28 Windsor Rd., 
Somerville, 1VIA 02144; and Doug 
Rogers (djrogers@umich.edu), 820 Fuller 
St., 44303, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. 


95 


Please send us news! Here’s what we’ve heard late¬ 
ly: Kara Ryan has been writing and editing for 
Outside Magazine in Santa Fe, NM. * As program 
coordinator of the Adirondack Mountain Club, 
Megan Smith teaches outdoor education courses, 
helps to operate two wilderness lodges, and con¬ 
ducts extensive trails, conservation, educational out¬ 
ings, and natural history programs. * Wright 
Frank (adk4143@yahoo.com) is in Morocco with 
the Peace Corps. # After graduating from New 
York Medical College in May, Greg Friberg 
(drgfri@aol.com) moved to Lebanon, NH, to start 
his residency in internal medicine at Dartmouth 
Hitchcock Medical Center. # Mollie Knox fin¬ 
ished a summer internship at a NYC law firm and 
returned to the Univ. ofWI this fall to complete 
her final year of law school. # Author Robert 
Cormier and screenwriter Jennifer Sarja collabo¬ 
rated on a film version of Cormier’s The Bumblebee 
Flies Anyway, a novel Jennifer first read while in 
school. She transferred to NYU and got her mas¬ 
ter’s in dramatic writing in 1995. Robert Cormier 
was a participant in the Bread LoafWriters’ 
Conference in 1968. * Mark Podhajsky (mpod- 
hajsky@getty.edu) writes that he’s working at the J. 
Paul Getty Museum in the dazzling new Getty 
Center perched high above L.A. He works on spe¬ 
cial projects for the Museum. After three years in 
L.A., he says, “I wouldn’t think of living anywhere 
else!” * Dave Medow is working in the television 
business in L.A. * Damien Saccani is a director 
of development in the motion picture group at 
Universal Pictures in L.A. Damien reports that 
Alec Perkins is teaching in San Francisco, Tom 
Kuchler is at Chase in NYC. Anna Hart is at 
Johns Hopkins, Winfield Campbell is going to 
med school this fall. Justin Burley is working for 
an investment banking firm in London, Dan 
Richards is working in Chicago, Kelly Hefner is 
working for the Discovery Channel in DC, and 
Rob Perez (in L.A.) has sold something to 
Working Title films and is working on a television 
project and another unproduced screenplay. * 
Erica DeVos (devos@smtp.democrats.org), who 
got a master’s in foreign service in May from 
Georgetown, has returned to the Democratic 
National Committee to work on the 2000 
Convention. # With a new master’s in environ¬ 
mental management from Duke, Keith Arnold 
(arnold_keith@homiail.com) went to work for an 
environmental consulting firm in DC in August. * 
Wendy Ekman (brighton@sni.net) graduated 
from Case Western Reserve School of Law. Now a 
public defender for the State of CO, she reports 
that she “could not be happier.” She’s rooming with 


Fall 

































Seth Greett ’97 and Helen Motter ’96 climbing 
near Bozeman, MT 

Meredith Frinsko in Denver, where Meredith 
works for the Denver Bar Assoc. Wendy reports that 
she often sees Denver residents Ben Freiberg. 
Jessica Fiedler ’96, and Tracey Grant. * Jen 
Mallette (jmallett@student.lesley.edu) is happy to 
be back in the Boston area after two years in 
Madison, WI.This summer she started the M.Ed. 
program in elementary education at Lesley College. 
* Andy Cantor is working at Mt. Snow in VT. # 
Arnold Lewis is living in Tacoma, WA, teaching 
Spanish at Charles Wright Academy, and coaching 
soccer. He met up with Mike Hume recently in 
WA for the Paul Simon/Bob Dylan concert. * 
Sasha Sedriks left Seattle, where he was doing art 
gallery work, to attend art graduate school in San 
Francisco. # Steve Engle is at Victoria Univ. in 
Wellington, NZ, doing a masters in geography. * 
Jeff Inglis (jeff.inglis@pobox.com) (www.jeffin- 
glis.com) has been working on a masters in jour¬ 
nalism at the Univ. of MO-Columbia by doing an 
independent project about small towns in New 
Zealand. He hoped to get together with the family 
of Sarah Teele ’94 in Christchurch in July and had 
been in touch with Jen Hazen, who has been 
researching a mine in central Asia for her Ph.D. in 
geography at the Univ. of CO-Boulder. Jeff sent 
news of Amy Young (in New York this summer, 
doing research towards her Ph.D. in geology at 
UCLA). Denise Kmetzo (in Boston, studying 
public health), Matt Hodges (in Boston working 
for Brown Brothers), Will Dobson (a student at 
Harvard, has been in China), Jon McDonagh 
(back in VT, finishing his studies at UVM Med 
School). Emily Stone (working at the Burlington 
Free Press), and Kara Sweeney (working in opera¬ 
tions at Sugarbush until she transferred to 
Killington). Returning to the U.S. for six weeks in 
August, Jeff was off for six months in Antarctica to 
work for the newspaper run by the U.S. Antarctic 
Research Program, based at McMurdo Station on 
the Ross Ice Shelf. * “After much thought,” Kyle 
Winder (kyledriver@aol.com) “decided to put my 
English degree to good use and joined the Air 
Force as a pilot. Graduated Officer Training School 
April 9. Graduated the Aerospace Basic Course 
May 7. Finished Introductory Flight Training July 
26. Stationed at Maxwell AFB for the moment. Go 
on to USAF Pilot Training September 17 at 
Columbus AFB, MS. Looking to fly the B1 -B or 


C-17.” * Mia Johnson and Tyler Newton were 
married in MN on June 26. * Carine 
Falkenberg and Mike Lauterbach ’96 exchanged 
vows in Oslo, Norway, on July 2. * After finishing 
his MBA at CEIBS in Shanghai, China, Chris 
Romer (romerchris@yahoo.com) is back in 
Europe as a software consultant for SAP in 
Heidelberg. * David Diamonon has been in var¬ 
ious countries of the former Soviet Union for 
about four years. He wrote in early summer: “I 
have found myself in Ukraine for two years. After 
working for the International Finance Corp. in dif¬ 
ferent cities for a year, Oliver Truog and I con¬ 
verged on Kiev over 1997 and 1998. Sara 
Morgan Truog founded Kiev’s first English lan¬ 
guage theater, while teaching toddlers at an inter¬ 
national school. Sash Schmemann graced us with 
his presence for several months last spring. Sash will 
receive a master’s in international relations from the 
London School of Economics this summer. The 
Environmental Research Institute of Michigan 
hired me to manage the finances for their USAID- 
funded project in Ukraine for conversion of spy 
technology for commercial use. But the best part of 
it all is founding Speeding Lisa, Kiev’s latest and 
greatest expatriate rock band! We’ll play our fourth 
gig at the Embassy 4th of July celebration. If we 
ever lose our drummer, we’ll consider taking on 
Jason Dutil ’96, who recently relocated to Kiev 
from Almaty, Kazakhstan, with Deloitte and 
Touche. Hope everyone’s doing well.” 

Class Secretaries: Jennifer J. Varney (jen- 
varney@yahoo.com), 19 Ashland St., 

#3, Somerville, MA 02144; and Mohan 
Renganathan (mrenganathan@modem- 
poppe.com), 108 E. 96th St., #6D, New York, NY 
10128. 

At the Univ. of CA, San Francisco, Elizabeth 
Prescott (epresco@itsa.ucsf.edu), has received a 
NSF Predoctoral Award. # Brad Corrigan (brad- 
corr@calldispatch.com) and his band, Dispatch 
(formerly One Fell Swoop) went on tour this fall. 
To learn more about their new album, “Four-Day 
Trials,” check out their Web site at www.calldis- 
patch.com, which was set up by Taylor Mahony. 

* Tracey Wilkerson is still at Outward Bound in 
ME. Her beautiful dog, Pogi, was injured in a car 
accident, but is recovering well. * Colleen Oates 
is on the North Shore of MA, working in historical 
preservation and seeking further employment in 
that field. # Kali Azzi finished her master’s at 
American Univ. and is living in Jerusalem, where 
she is a coordinator for the Middle East North 
Africa NGO Working Group. While commuting to 
work, she recently ran into Sammy Khalil, who 
spent the summer in Palestine working for a 
Palestinian human rights monitoring organization. 

* Adrienne Yun met Stephen Shore in Korea, 
where she was teaching English as a Fulbright 
scholar and working in the president’s office of 
Korean Air Lines. Stephen graduated from the U.S. 
Military Academy and served a three-year tour of 
duty in Korea. On August 16,1998, the two were 
married at the West Point Chapel in NY. After a 
honeymoon in Kauai, the newlyweds are living in 
Enterprise, AL. 

Class Secretaries: Karen Lewis 
(kleim@sierrahealth.com), 216 E. Cross 
St., Baltimore, MD 21230; and Rob 
Birdsong (robert.t.birdsong@ac.com), 150 
Stamford St., #407, Boston, MA 02114. 




Helen Froelich (helen_froelich@yahoo.com) 
writes: “Life in China is treating me well. I am 
enjoying my job at Sinofile (check out Web site at 
www.sinopolis.com.cn). I’m playing on two ice 
hockey teams here—one foreign, one Chinese— 
and plan to stay here for at least another year. I 
recendy went to Manila for a men’s 5 hockey tour¬ 
nament. We did pretty well, despite having to play 
on a 1/2 size rink in the middle of a shopping cen¬ 
ter. I had a great time and made it onto national 
TV for being the only woman in the tournament!” 
* Lilia Gerberg (thegerby@yahoo.com) is a 
water sanitation health educator in the eastern 
province of Zambia. Her address is Lilia Gerberg, 
U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer, PO. Box 50707 
Lusaka, Zambia, Southern Africa. * Josh Levy 
(joshlevy@yahoo.com) is “still living among the 
chic and unshowered in Paris.” * Brooke Capps 
is reportedly living outside NYC, recuperating 
from her Peace Corps time in Ukraine. # Lara 
Wagner traveled through Latin America before 
returning to Washington State to begin medical 
school this fall. * Heidi Hopkins is a flight coor¬ 
dinator at Raytheon, accruing hours towards her 
pilot license. She finished first-level courses at an 
intensive flight school, and is based in Wichita, KS, 
for now. * Katie Hosford completed a stellar first 
year at UW law in Seattle, won her section compe¬ 
titions in Moot Court, and was looking forward to 
a summer internship with a judge. Katie and Tracy 
Nolan and Rachel Odell were in Seattle for a 
reunion on Whidbey Island! Rachel continues to 
write for the Jackson Hole Daily News, covering the 
environmental beat. * Amy Nichols left her job 
at Chase, went to Paris for two weeks, then took a 
new job at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in the 
asset management group, where she’s marketing 
private equity funds and hedge funds. She writes 
that a recent column reported she was solving the 
Euro crisis.“Wish that were true, but it’s not!” # 
Heather Thompson (hbtl7@excite.com) is 
teaching high school history in Portland, ME. She 
was recently visited by Cam Brown ’99, who is 
working as a nanny. * Living in the DC area, 
Henock Gebreamlak (henock@patriot.net) is an 
information systems analyst for the Federal Reserve 
System. Last year he had a wonderful time visiting 
his family and friends back in Addis Ababa, 

Ethiopia. # Preparing for her new teaching posi¬ 
tion at the Crane School this fall in Santa Barbara, 
Laura Sanchez spent the summer studying 
Spanish at Midd. ♦ Christina Papanestor is in 
Santa Barbara, working at a chamber music pre¬ 
senting organization. * Stephanie Pindyck 
enjoyed the summer at Bread Loaf. She continues 
at National Public Radio as a producer for the 
Living on Earth program and as developer for the 
program’s Web page as well. * John Stephenson 
is a hiking guide in Aspen. * Jon Nass is in New 
Orleans, preparing to apply to dental school. * 

Kate Kline and Neil Matthews just moved into a 
new house in Burlington,VT. It even has a picket 
fence. Enough said! * Jackie Pelton, Elizabeth 
Frazier, Amy Flanders, Laura Wright, Todd 
Hankinson, Jeff Rea, Matt Ralston, Andy 
Jessen, Rob Birdsong, and Brian Hubbard 
enjoyed a weekend of water skiing and boating at 
the Hubbard home in Syracuse. Everyone contin¬ 
ues to do well and Jackie is looking forward to 
moving back to Boston. * Chante Wiegand. 
who works in client services at State Street Global 
Advisors, has moved into a fun new apartment in 
Newton. * Mark Felton and Joe Birbiglia are 
living in Somerville. Mark works for Fast Company 
magazine. * Carolyn Stewart and Olivia 


82 Middlebury Magazine 











Hooper are living in Allston. Carolyn works 
for Harvard’s University’s special programs group. 

♦ Joining Jonathan Tunney on Jon’s Island, ME, 
over the 4th of July were Brad Schenkel, Jon 
Schonberg, Ben Lucas ’96, Derry Mason, Howie 
Young ’96, Greg Carolan, Paige Budelsky ’98, 
Alex Blum, and Brett Zinober. There was much 
fun, food, laughter, and swimming. # 
Congratulations to Heather and Craig Stouffer, 
who were married Memorial Day weekend and 
left for their honeymoon in Tahiti. Details will fol¬ 
low in the next issue. 

Class Secretaries: Nate Johnson (njohn- 
son@niiddlebury.cchi), 13 Washington 
St., #3, Middlebury, VT 05753; Katie 
Whittlesey (k_whittlesey@hotniail.coni), 
34 White Pi, # 1, Brookline, MA 02445. 

The San Francisco Weekly recently named Farley’s 
“Best Cafe,” as well as “Best place to sit in a win¬ 
dow seat and not see Starbucks.” Jessica Cox- 
whose position at Farley’s is “Angel of Coffee”- 
writes: “Any MiddKids in the area should totally 
check us out. It’s so fun when people from 
Middlebury come in!” # Aubrey Cattell (acat- 
tell@bofasecurities.com) and Tad Gunkelman ’97 
(tgunkelm@lehman.com) are still greasing the 
wheels of capitalism in San Francisco. When their 
corporate masters give them a moments respite, 
they find time to toss the Frisbee or jump out of 
an airplane. # Lizza Morales writes: “I’m having 
the time of my life in the City of Angels! My days 
are spent working at a top talent agency, while my 
nights are constandy booked with events to attend, 
from premieres to award shows. My biggest prob¬ 
lem is figuring out what to wear. Highlights of the 
year: Attending Drew Barrymore and Courtney 
Love’s New Year’s bash, bumping into Jon Mone 
(who works at a competing talent agency), and 
attending the private screening of Star Wars at 
Skywalker Ranch.” # Former President Bryan 
Stratton has been exiled to Vallejo, CA, where he 
is plotting his next conquest with his closest advis¬ 
ers. To pass the time, he spends his days at 
Computec Media USA, where he gets a large pay- 
check for playing videogames. * Tanya 
Boudakian reports: “I’ve been working as Sirio 
Maccioni’s assistant at the famed New York restau¬ 
rant Le Cirque 2000 for the past year, hobnobbing 
with celebrities and the “ladies who lunch” in my 
role as French- and Italian-speaking peon to the 
stars. * Melissa Loeben is attending Columbia 
Univ. this fall to pursue a master’s in psychology. * 
Now living in NYC, Lela Moore is an editorial 
assistant at Workman Publishing. # Lauren 
Brown finished her master’s in education in 
Boston and moved to NYC to teach first grade at 
Sacred Heart. # While working on her Ph.D. at 
Princeton. Irina Marinov has received the 18th 
annual Andrew E. Nuquist Award for Outstanding 
Student Research on a Vermont Topic for her 
Midd senior physics thesis submission, “Wind-gen¬ 
erated Oscillations in Lake Champlain.” Her thesis 
was cited as an outstanding project that advanced 
existing atmospheric models on the lake. * Travis 
Greig (travisg@artpace.org) is doing his MFA in 
sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago. * In New 
Zealand, Emily Henlein is working for the 
Imperial Chemical Industry, (safety, health, and 
environment dept.). During summer she traveled 
through Portugal and Morocco and visited the U.S. 

♦ Sherr Lo writes: “Living in China has prepared 
me well for camping.This summer. I’ll be traveling 
around southwest China a bit. Hope to go camping 


near the border of Tibet. Will go to the border of 
Vietnam and go water rafting. Then, if all goes well, 
I’ll be moving to Hong Kong for a job. If the job 
doesn’t work out, Beijing or Shanghai.” # In 
Ecuador, Shruthi Mahalingaiah continues work 
on her Watson project. # As usual, rumors contin¬ 
ue to swirl about the lost souls of David Matthew 
Janiak Thomas and Erik Davis Hodge, who 
were last seen crossing the friendly border between 
Liechtenstein and Austria. They will be publishing 
their travel journals through Houghton-Mifflin 
upon their return to the States. # Now speech 
writing for Senator Chafee, Megan Sowards 
(megan.sowards@chafee.senate.gov) has answered 
the siren call of Capitol Hill. * Speaking of DC, a 
considerable contingent of MiddKids was seen 
roasting in the triple digit heat on the banks of the 
Potomac July 4. Hosting the ripper were local leg¬ 
ends Mike Lauze ’99. Libby Erwin, Megan 
Sowards, Alyson Cucci, and Madelyn 
Carpenter. In attendance were Nick Lauriat, 
Matt Coburn, Chuck Edwards, Jen Jensen, 
Manda Gonzalez, Nat Coughlin, Ande 
Breault. “Congratulations” Kate Barch, yours 
truly, and a ton of ’94s, ’95s, and ’99s. # After 
working for a year as a translator in Brazil, Dan 
Mack moved in August to DC, where he will pur¬ 
sue a master’s in foreign service at Georgetown. # 
Rebecca Sanaa left her internship at the Star 
Energy Project of the EPA to become personal 
assistant to Hugh Newell Jacobsen, the 
Georgetown architect whom she “met in text” at 
Midd. Becky bikes to work and plays hockey in 
Fairfax. ♦ Ben LaRocco is making his artistic 
mark early. Already a known name in his home¬ 
town of Gouldsboro, ME, Ben’s landscape and fig¬ 
ure oils were recently displayed at The Lemon Tree 
in Bangor, ME. # Still finding the scoop around 
Middlebury, Jen Jensen is a reporter for the 
Addison Independent. Recent articles have included 
an expose on brown recluse spiders and a thorough 
examination of Jay Parini’s new book. # Jen Close 
recently accepted a position in the Dean of Student 
Affairs Office at Middlebury. # Kat Inglis left 
Portland, ME, to attend Vermont Law School this 
fall, for a master’s in environmental law. She has vis¬ 
ited Abby Manzella, Tricia Zlotek, and Bree 
Arsenault in Boston. * On March 20,Jana 
Metevier ’99 and Douglas Beagley were married 
in Middlebury, where they now live. Doug is 
employed by Mt.Abe Union High School. # One 
final note. If anyone in the Class of 1998 has any 
notes they would like to share, send me an e-mail 
so I can include your stories. 

Class Secretaries: Melissa Finessing 
(melissa.pmessing. 99@alunmi. middle¬ 
bury. edu), 21 South St., Middlebury, VT 
05153; and Peter Steinberg (peter.stein- 
berg.99@alunini.middlebury.edu), Box 187, 3600 
Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 91904. 

A computer program created by Suzanne Minott 
has been applied by the College to streamline the 
process of matching new students with first-year 
seminars. In recent years about 85 percent of first- 
year students were placed in seminars that were 
either their first or second choices. Using Suzanne’s 
program, which she developed for her senior thesis 
in math, 99 percent of the students who registered 
by telephone got their first or second choice semi¬ 
nars. * “My internship at NASA this summer,” 
reports David Grass (grass@spectra.gsfc.nasa.gov), 
“turned into a job in the fall working on the 
Human Health Initiative, part of which attempts to 



July 4 festivities at Cape May “campus” (see 1999 
column) 

predict malaria epidemics using meteorological 
satellite data. After December 22,1 will be going to 
Santiago, Chile, on a Fulbright Scholarship.” # 
Matthew Landfield (matthewlandfield@ hot- 
mail.com) is working as an actor and filmmaker in 
NYC. He was recently cast in a small speaking 
role in Ed Harris’s new movie, Pollock, about artist 
Jackson Pollock. “I got to work with Ed, who was 
very nice.Val Kilmer, Marcia Gay Harden, and 
John Heard, who were also on set, were all cool, 
too. Ed Harris’s wife, Amy Madigan, is also in the 
movie. Also, my senior thesis film-video project, 
Defying Gravity, recently won second prize in the 
Sierra Nevada Student Film and Video contest in 
Incline Village, NV. On August 11, Defying Gravity 
was screened in Manhattan (Second Ave. and 
Second St.) as part of the New Filmmakers Film 
Series at Anthology Film Archives.” * Now 
working at B.T. Alex Brown in NYC, Susan 
Givens (givens@panther.middlebury.edu) is living 
on the Upper East Side with Martha Alexander 
(Goldman Sachs) and Mimi Doggett (Sibson 
Consulting). # While traveling the country after 
graduation, Ron Allen (rallen@panther.middle- 
bury.edu) met someone named Mark in New 
Orleans and the two decided to move to San 
Francisco to live together and start up a sandwich 
shop. Writing in June: “So far we have been in 
business for a week and it has gone great. The 
shop is called 12", and is located at the base of 
Nob Hill. Mark and I welcome all Midd alums to 
stay with us—and if they mention that they are 
Midd grads at 12", they’ll receive a free foot long 
on us.” # Peter Steinberg was a protein chemist 
for Wyeth Lederle Vaccines (Rochester, NY) until 
starting medical school at the UPenn School of 
Medicine in August. # Jana Metevier and 
Douglas Beagley ’98 were married March 20 at 
Ilsley Memorial Baptist Church in Middlebury. 
Doug works at Mount Abraham Union High 
School. * July 4 festivities at the Cape May cam¬ 
pus involved John Couch, C.J. Diamond, John 
Overbay, Scott Dudley, Charles Macintosh, 
Ben Bedford, Forrest Westin, Pete Steinberg, 
Matt Saxton, Lindsey Huenink, Lindsay 
Ritter, Kristine Kraushaar, Liz Cassidy, Meg 
Hankins, and Jess Foote. (See photo) # Stay in 
touch! Send news to the addresses at the head of 
this column! 




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Fall 83 














LANGUAGE SCHOOLS 


ENGLISH 


In April, Vaughn Ramsey Ward (M.A. ’67) 
(vaughnward@aol.com) was inducted into the 
Academy ofWomen of Achievement by the 
Assembly and Senate of the State of NY. For more 
than 30 years,Vaughn has been collecting, restoring, 
and presenting the history and culture of New York 
States North Country. She has edited several 
Adirondack folklore collections and has written 
two books— I Always Tell the Truth (Even If I Have to 
Lie to Do It) and Six-Foot Man Eatin* Chicken. She 
created the Saratoga County Folklife and Oral 
History Program and the Lower Adirondack 
Regional Folklife Project. She served as the major 
consultant for the PBS 1996 documentary Music 
from the Heart of the Adirondacks. In 1998, Vaughn 
and husband George received a rarely-given 
Evergreen Award from the Traditional Arts of 
Upstate NY, in recognition of their contributions 
to and support of the people of the Adirondack 
foothills. * Herbert Martin (M.Litt. 72) (mart- 
inh@checkov.hm.udayton.edu) recendy won first 
prize in the Mellen Press Poetry Competition for 
his long narrative poem, “The Log of the 
Vigilante.” He also placed first in the Piccadilly 
Poetry Reading Contest, which allows him a read¬ 
ing debut in London in October. His newest vol¬ 
ume of poems is Galileo’s Suns (Bottom Dog Press 
at Firelands College, Huron, OH). # This 
September, Patricia Phaneuf Alexander (M.A. 
’94) and husband Randolph moved to London, 
where Patricia is working for the Archbishop of 
Canterbury for one year. 


FRENCH 


The Brunswick (ME) Area Student Aid Fund 
endowed a scholarship fund in memory of 
Malcolm D. Clarke (M.A. ’29), who taught for¬ 
eign languages at North Yarmouth Academy after 
his retirement to Harpswell in 1963. He died on 
September 29,1998, at the age of 96. * After 33 
years of service to the Univ. of Rochester, Charles 
Carlton (M.A. ’51) (carlton@ling.rochester.edu) 
retired as prof, of modern languages and cultures 
last spring. In addition to teaching French language 
courses, he focused his work on Romance linguis¬ 
tics, including Romanian. * Merton Bland 
(M.A. ’56) (merton@erols.com) is back in this 
country after serving for 18 months as a U.S. 
Information Agency English Teaching Fellow in 
Vietnam. After his retirement from the foreign 
service, he earned another M.A. (in linguistics) and 
a graduate certificate in TESOL, then went abroad 
(Germany, China, Malaysia, Korea, and Vietnam) to 
teach English. * Mel Yoken (’59, ’63), of the Univ. 
of MA Dartmouth, has published a third book in a 
series entitled Entretiens Quebecois. Written entirely 
in French, the book consists of detailed interviews 
with nine contemporary Quebec writers. # 
Knighted by the French government on May 1, 
Donna Michels Czarnecki (M.A. 71) is now a 
“Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Academique.” In 
1997, she was selected by the American Assoc, of 
Teachers of French as Outstanding French Teacher 
in the Nation on the secondary level. * Patricia 
Albers (M.A. 72) (bariolee@aol.com) recently 
published a biography of the photographer and 
revolutionary Tina Modotti: Shadows, Fire, Snow: The 
Life of Tina Modotti (Clarkson Potter). * Elizabeth 
Richardson Viti (74) was recently named the 
Edwin T. Johnson and Cynthia Shearer Johnson 


84 Middlebury Magazine 


Distinguished Teaching Chair in the Humanities at 
Gettysburg College in PA. # Brother Robert 
Green (M.A. 76) has been appointed headmaster 
of Malden Catholic High School. He was previous¬ 
ly assistant principal of academics at St.John’s Prep 
in Danvers, MA. # Upon her retirement from 
teaching at the Massanutten Military Academy last 
spring, Paulette Maggiolo (D.M.L. 76) received 
the first Woodstock (VA) Rotary Club Teacher of 
the Year Award. * Paul Gery (M.A. 77) teaches 
German at Arlington High School in 
LaGrangeville, NY. He lives in New Windsor with 
wife Donna and son Marc. # Lizbeth Huyer 
Herrick (M.A. 77) recently led the Liverpool 
(NY) Central School 150-member marching band 
on a trip to Bordeaux, France. A former French 
teacher, Lizbeth is the school’s assistant superintend¬ 
ent. # Roy (Chip) Dupuy (M.A. ’80) (yupchip 
@microgear.net) writes: “I have lost all contact 
with Middies who participated in Paris school, 
1979-1980. Is there someone out there who might 
remember me? I worked at the Taipei American 
School for many years, teaching ESL and French. 
I’m retired now, but I retain fond memories of 
Middlebury and TAS. Next year I plan to return to 
Taiwan and other points in Asia where I hope to 
go back to teaching. Retirement is fine, but it does 
get boring. I urge everyone to do some work 
abroad. It’ll open your mind.” ♦ Barbara 
Appleby (M.A. ’83), of North Yarmouth, ME, has 
been promoted to VP of retirement and financial 
planning at NorthStar Retirement Strategies in 
Portland. # Living in South Philadelphia with hus¬ 
band David, Pamela Powles (M.A. French ’83; 
M.A. Spanish ’91) reports that her three children— 
Cassandra (12), Patricia (7), and Nathaniel (2)—are 
all learning French from their “maman.” * Megan 
Carroll Shea (’87-’88) (mcs@carrollassoc.com) 
lives in WeUesley, MA, with husband Timothy and 
children Aisling (2 1/2) and Eoin (2 mos.).An arts 
attorney with her own practice (CarroU Associates), 
Megan is also a law prof, at New England School 
of Law. She continues to dance with two smaU 
dance companies in Boston. # A fiiU-time French 
teacher at St. Hilda’s and St. Hugh’s Episcopal 
School in NYC, Cynthia Crumlish (M.A. ’88) 
(cynbc@ earthlink.net) is also a professional actress. 
For the month of July she was working at the 
Globe Theatre in London. 


GERMAN 


Jesuit Father G. Donald Pantle (M.A. ’64) recent¬ 
ly celebrated the 50th anniversary of his joining the 
Society of Jesus. He teaches German and Spanish at 
the Univ. of Scranton, where he is associate campus 
minister. * Ilse Graf Raymond (M.A. ’83) 
retired in 1996 from teaching French, Spanish, and 
German, “but stiU studying Japanese. Started new 
life, taking lots of art courses, joyfully doing water- 
colors, swimming, and skiing.” # After living in 
Germany for two years, Mary Scarbrough Hunt 
(M.A. ’92) returned to grad school in the U.S. in 
1998 for a master’s in library/information science at 
the Univ. of MD, CoUege Park. 


ITALIAN 


In Bristol, RI, Natalie Lero Urban (M.A. 71) 
teaches Italian at Cranston High School West, 
where one of her Italian IV honors students recent¬ 
ly scored first place in the country on the National | 
Italian exam. 


JAPANESE 


Conrad Chaffee (’96, ’98) (chaffee@alumni.mid- 
dlebury.edu) writes: “Soredewa mata nihon de 
aiinashyo!” He is spending the year in Japan. 


SPANISH 


James W. Robb (M.A. ’50), prof, emeritus of 
Romance languages at George Washington Univ., 
has been elected to the Mexican Academy of 
Letters in recognition of his scholarly studies of 
Mexican poet Alfonso Reyes. # Keith McDuffie 
(M.A. ’60) became prof, emeritus on May 1, fol¬ 
lowing 24 years of service in the dept, of Hispanic 
languages and literatures, Univ. of Pittsburgh. He 
writes that his most memorable Middlebury expe¬ 
riences were playing the role of Don Quijote in a 
Spanish School production of Manuel de Falla’s 
chamber opera, El retablo de Maese Pedro , directed 
by the late Cuban cinematographer Nestor 
Almendros, and the role of the befuddled husband 
in Gregorio Martinez Sierra’s play, Sueho de una 
noche de agosto , directed by Luis Baralt. # President 
Clinton has named Brian O’Dwyer (M.A. ’67) to 
the President’s Commission on White House 
Fellowships. A partner with O’Dwyer and 
Bernstein, a NYC litigation law firm, Brian was 
appointed commissioner of the NYC Commission 
on Human Rights by Mayor David Dinkins. ♦ Sr. 
Angela Marie Ebberwein (M.A. ’69),VP of St. 
Joseph’s Mercy Care Corp. of Atlanta, was recently 
elected to the board of Mercy Medical, a multi¬ 
service healthcare organization in AL. # Ernest 
Bio (M.A. 72) has been appointed assistant super¬ 
intendent of the Asbury Park, NJ, school district, 
where he was originally hired as a Spanish teacher 
in 1971. * Helen Woods (M.A. 72) reports 
“great memories of Middlebury!” She has taught in 
bilingual schools in Bolivia and Peru, taught 
Spanish and French in Saugus, MA, and retired in 
1994. Now she volunteers, teaching ESL to 
Russian immigrants preparing for citizenship. # 
Malcolm Kutash (M.A. 73) has joined SunTrust 
Bank of Southwest FL as private banking manager 
for the Olde Naples office. # Since 1983, the 
scholarship of Ralph DiFranco (M.A. 74) has 
centered on the preparation of first editions of 16th 
century Spanish poetry manuscripts. With colleague 
Jose Labrador, he has published 12 editions and 23 
journal articles. In 1997 they were awarded an 
NEH grant for $94,580 to produce a database of 
this poetry. With the assistance of colleagues at 
Berkeley, they created Bibliografta de la Poesia A urea, 
which now includes over 75,000 first lines of 
poems taken from more than 250 manuscripts and 
books. A second NEH grant for $160,040 is 
enabling the continuation of the project. * Now 
head of the language dept, at St. Andrew’s Episcopal 
School in Ridgeland, MS, Farrell Payne (M.A. 

77) is state president of A.A.T.S.P/Tm finishing a 
second master’s in ESL at the Univ. of Southern 
MS and would like to spend a year teaching in 
Russia. Any ideas?” * Carol Weston Ackerman 
(M.A. 79), author of a variety of books addressing 
adolescent girls’ issues, recently revised and updated 
her 1985 book, Girltalk:AII the StuffYour Sister Never 
Told You. Carol and husband Robert (78, 79)— 
who met at Middlebury—have two daughters, 
Elizabeth (11) and Emme (9). ♦ In Fontainebleau, 
France, Betty Flasch (bflasch@ibm.net) (M.A. '80) 
has been appointed acting director of career man¬ 
agement service for INSEAD. * Patricia 






























Corcoran Thomas (M.A. ’83) (pthomas@uwsu- 
per.edu) was recently awarded a fellowship for out¬ 
standing teaching at the Univ. ofWI-Superior, 
where she is an assistant prof. She and husband 
John live in Duluth. # Marcia Alban (M.A. ’84) 
visited the Holy Land last December with the 
Highland Park Strings, playing five concerts in cele¬ 
bration of the 50th anniversary of the bar mitzvah 
of Larry Block, founder and manager of the 
Highland Park Strings. # Terri Knoblauch 
Atkinson (M.A. ’85) (terri9150@aol.com) would 
love to hear from classmates of the early ’80s in the 
Spanish School. “Over the years, I have referred 
several language students to Middlebury’s summer 
program. I loved it and I know they will, too.” # 
Bridgewater (VA) College prof. Lynn McGovern- 
Waite (M.A. ’85) was one of 15 university profes¬ 
sors in the U.S. selected to participate in the first 
NEH Summer Institute on 19th-Century Spain. # 
Literary agent Laura Dail (M.A. ’88) specializes in 
Latin American fiction and nonfiction. She repre¬ 
sents eminent novelists from Mexico and Spain, as 
well as practical nonfiction for the U.S. Latino mar¬ 
ket. # Nicole Lepoutre (M.A. ’88) and Mark 
Sherf were married on February 14 in Marblehead, 
MA.They live in Salem and she teaches in the 
Manchester-by-the-Sea school system. # George 
Neri (M.A. ’90) has moved to Buffalo to be the 
consumer finance operations specialist in the bank 
card security department at HSBC Bank, USA. # 
Frank and Kathy Dennehy Haubert (M.A. ’91) 
welcomed son Tyler Mitchell on April 19. # The 
November 21,1998, marriage of Anne Gingras 
(M.A. ’92) and Kevin Kelly took place in Augusta, 
ME. Anne is a Spanish teacher at Cony High 
School. * Mike O’Connor (M.A. ’92) (mikeo- 
connr@aol.com) and Nayade Carinao were mar¬ 
ried on March 20 in Temuco, Chile. Mike is a 
medical interpreter at Brigham and Women’s 
Hospital in Boston and Nayade is an internal audi¬ 
tor for Liberty Mutual. * Jeffrey Silva (M.A. ’93) 
is a detective in the New Bedford, MA, Police 
Dept. ♦ Wendy Birmingham Allerton (M.A. 
’94) welcomed daughter Kendall Anne Allerton on 
December 10, 1998. Daughter Kennelly Sarah 
turned two in April. “We are enjoying family life 
and wish all my classmates well.” * Kathleen 
Murphy and Robert Bilsbury (M.A. ’94) 
exchanged vows on October 17,1998, inTopsfield, 
MA. Robert teaches Spanish at Manchester High 
School. * A visiting instructor at Washington and 
Lee Univ., Khamla Dhouti (M.A. ’94) is com¬ 
pleting her doctoral dissertation at the Univ. ofTX- 
Austin. * Melissa O’Neill (M.A. ’94) has joined 
the Mirick O’Connell law firm (Worcester, MA) as 
an associate in the corporate law dept. # The mar¬ 
riage ofjulie Dobrow and Jason Rossi (M.A. ’94) 
took place on January 2 in NYC. Thomas Breen 
(M.A. ’94) attended the ceremony.Jason 
(jrossi@transperfect.com) is director of the produc¬ 
tion group at TransPerfect Translations, Inc. * 

Maria Italiano (M.A. ’96) has joined the foreign 
language dept, of Gloucester Catholic High School 
in Gloucester City, NJ. # Kimberly Lawless 
Talbot (M.A. *97) has been teaching Spanish since 
1995 at Revere (MA) High School. * Tara 
Cocozza (’97, ’98) married Gary Duvall on 
March 13. She teaches Spanish at the Beaver 
Country Day School, Chestnut Hill, MA. * Maria 
Pizzano (M.A. ’98) is a foreign language teacher 
in the Pelham, NY, school district. # Spanish 
teacher Sheri Petelle (’97, ’98) won the 
Massachusetts Foreign Language Associations New 
Teacher of the Year award in 1998. She teaches 4th 
through 11 th graders in Manchester, MA. 


OBITUARIES 


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Dr. Stephen A. Freeman, 

Chevalier de 
la Xeg'ion cl Jhonncur, 
Commandeur a l’Crdre des 
Balmes Si cademiques, et 
professeur de langue et Culture 
frangaises, 


Uax inxpixateux et 
teux ttwdeie, 


te p&t&onnel de 


C’fiwle pum$aiye 


Dorothy Douglas Purdy. 100, of 
&L Houston,TX, on July 15,1999. She was a 
former advertising manager of Bonwit Teller and 
Co. in Philadelphia. Survivors include sons Stuart 
D. Purdy ’59 and William H. Purdy. She was prede¬ 
ceased by several Middlebury relatives, including 
her husband, William H. Purdy Sr. 1926; her father, 
William J. Douglas 1893; her mother, Mary 
Dunshee Douglas 1893; her brother, Stuart D. 
Douglas 1919; and her sister, Harriet Douglas 
Seelye 1933. 


Aimee Putnam Riker, 98, of Spencer, NY, on 
June 18,1999. She taught high school English and 
social studies for many years in Spencer. Elected the 
first woman elder of the First Presbyterian Church, 
she was also involved in community service, 
hooked rugs, and remained physically active well 
into her 90s. In 1990, she was named Senior 
Citizen of the Year of Tioga County. She was the 
widow of Leon W. Riker. Survivors include sons 
Leon W. and Neil A. Riker, daughter Patricia 
Branton, a sister, six grandchildren, and 11 great¬ 
grandchildren. 


Roland A. Bennett, 97, of Preston, CT, on 
&L U May 28, 1999. For 45 years, he was a civil 
engineer and deputy highway commissioner for the 
state of CT. He was a member of the Masons of 
Norwich and enjoyed sports, especially the Boston 
Red Sox. He leaves wife Helen (Woodmansee), son 
Roland Jr., daughters Joan Murphy and Gay 
Reichart, a sister, 10 grandchildren, and 10 great¬ 
grandchildren. 


Robert R. Herrick, 93, of Greensburg, IN, 
Jv/on May 18,1999. Mr. Herrick started the 
Retail Credit Co (later Equifax, Inc.) and managed 
offices in WV, MA, OH, PA, and IN, before retiring 
to Delray Beach, FL. He served on various civic 
committees and was an officer of the Presbyterian 
Church and the Middlebury Congregational 
Church. He served Middlebury College as class sec¬ 
retary and as class agent. Predeceased by wife 
Marion in 1986, he is survived by son R. Ross 
Herrick ’60, daughters Martha Bough and Janet 
Foster, a brother, and two granddaughters. 


Royal O. Knowlton, 91, of Ashford, CT, on June 
14, 1999. Living in the house built by his great¬ 


grandfather, he maintained the family farm while 
serving the town in many capacities. He was town 
clerk for 30 years and also served as probate judge, 
town treasurer, assessor, registrar of voters, and state 
representative. A painting of Mr. Knowlton was 
placed in the town hall in September 1998. 
Survivors include son Thomas, daughters Dorothy 
and Nancy, and seven grandchildren. 


C. Lloyd Mann, 95, of Daytona Beach, FL, on 
April 24,1999. He began his 43-year teaching 
career in a one-room schoolhouse before coming 
to Middlebury. He later taught high school chem¬ 
istry, physics, and mathematics. He earned a master’s 
from Albany (NY) Teachers’ College and complet¬ 
ed his career on the faculty ofWappingers Falls 
Central School. Survived by his wife of 68 years, 
Harriette (Burton), he also leaves sons Charles, 
Burton, Robert, Russell, and Roger; 12 grandchil¬ 
dren, and 11 great-grandchildren. 


Harry Bullukian. 89, of Franklin, MA, on 
*5 S June 23,1999. With his brother, Arthur, he 
established the H. Bullukian & Sons Oil Co. in 
Franklin. Survivors include wife Jennie (Vartanian), 
son George, daughter Marsha Fahey, and three 
grandchildren. 






Josephine Walker Hoecke, 86, of North 
Attleborough, MA, on June 3(), 1999. She 
attended Katharine Gibbs School in Boston and 
served on the school’s scholarship committee for 
several years. In additional to secretarial work, she 
did research for an inventor and for the president of 
Rumford (RI) Chemical Works. She was very 
active later in volunteer work and traveled the 
world with her husband, Bertel V. Hoecke, who 
survives her. She also leaves a daughter, Christine 
Hoecke. 


Marion Jones Munford, 88, of Middlebury, VT, 
on July 20,1999. After two years of teaching 
English, history, and biology in rural Vermont, she 
embarked on a career in library work at 
Dartmouth, Harvard, Boston City Hospital, the 
Bread Loaf School of English, and Porter Hospital 
in Middlebury. At Middlebury College, she directed 
and taught the laboratory sections in the introduc¬ 
tory course in biology and served as codirector of a 
program designed to bring African-American stu¬ 
dents to the campus for a special summer academic 
program in the wake of the assassination of Martin 
Luther King. She became increasingly involved 
with the Middlebury community, working to serve 
the needs of the poor. She served as president of 
the Addison County Community Action Group 
(ACCAG), helped created the local food shelf, was 
a founding member of the John Graham Shelter in 
Vergennes, helped indigent and transient people in 
her capacity of town officer, chaired the Christmas 
Shop (providing toys and new clothing to Addison 
County children), and initiated the Clothing 
Room, where she sorted donated clothing for 
decades. The Clothing Room in the new ACCAG 
building has been appropriately named in her 
honor. She also served on the boards of the 
Vermont State Governor’s Scenery Preservation 
Council, the Champlain Valley Area on Aging 
Agency, and chaired the Episcopal Diocesan 
Commission on Community Services. She was a 
10-year volunteer for the Vermont State Public 
Health Department’s Well Child Clinic, was among 
the first hospice volunteers, and was a founder of 
the FISH Volunteer Service of Meals on Wheels. In 
recognition of her outstanding volunteer work and 


Fall 85 




_ 


M I D D> C O N N E C T I O N 










































IN MEMORIAM 


WENDY PEIRSON NOURJIAN '65 

April 18, 1946 - May 3, 1999 
by Nancy Stead, Stowe Reporter 

Wendy Peirson Nouijian died at home Monday, May 3, in 
the early hours of a bright spring morning she would have 
relished. 

Wendy died the way she lived—fighting cancer with 
all the guts and grit and curiosity a person could possibly 
summon, and when it was apparent that the battle was over, 
she spent her final days making those around her comfortable. 
With family and closest friends gathered, she bound them with 
humor and utter candor until the time came to leave them in 
peace. 

Wendy was an outdoor woman: a hiker, an accomplished 
sailor and skier, a fierce field and ice hockey player. At tennis 
she roared to the net. When she had had enough of everyday 
hassles, she would grab a sleeping bag and head to Waterbury 
Reservoir to sleep under the stars, or join Chico, her Australian 
shepherd, in the cockpit of her kayak and head out for a 
paddle. She did not see complications, burdens or failure; she 
saw paths. 

When Wendy learned she had breast cancer, she researched 
every possible course of traditional and alternative treatment. 
She also bought a 30-foot sloop in Vermont, sailed it down the 
Barge Canal and the Hudson River to the Atlantic, and headed 
up the coast to her beloved childhood home of Marion, Mass. 
Periodically she paused long enough to race back to Vermont 
for chemotherapy treatments. Her cancer and her boat were 


voyages of discovery; she said just 
before she died that even having 
cancer was fun because she met 
so many amazing people and 
learned so much. 

Above all, Wendy loved being 
a mother. She adored her chil¬ 
dren, Gregg, Disa, Erica, and 
Galen, but they only took a frac¬ 
tion of her mothering genes. So 
she helped found the Stowe 
Skating Club and launched a 
generation of skaters, coached hockey, taught skiing, and started 
the Mt. Mansfield Academy, thus nurturing a generation of 
skiers. Her life was about doing the very best she could do; she 
was intensely competitive, yet never cared about winning. 

A woman of high personal standards, she was nonetheless 
disinterested in casting judgment. Her faith in peoples ability 
to change nudged her wider surrogate family into facing their 
fears and taking charge of their lives. 

Finally, it must be noted that Wendy was without pretense. 
Going to a party meant adding a necklace to the corduroys she 
had been wearing all day Her solutions to the side effects of 
chemotherapy were inspired, if basic, and her kids remarked 
that she always remembered when it was time to buy them a 
new hockey stick, but never thought of clothes. 

Wendy was born on Easter Sunday in Brookline, Mass. She 
graduated from Beaver Country Day and, then in 1966, from 
Middlebury College. She is survived by her friend and hus¬ 
band, Bruce; sisters Marcia Rretchmer, Patricia DeBruyn, 
Virginia Morgan, and Beverly Sheer; and children Gregg ’88, 
Disa, Erica ’92, and Galen. 



community involvement, she received an honorary 
degree from the College at Commencement 1994, 
and she was presented in April of 1998 with a 
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Vermont 
Commission on National and Community Service. 
She leaves her husband, Professor Emeritus of 
American Literature Howard M. Munford ’34; 
daughter Martha Munford Hillemann ’79; son 
David Munford ’72; three grandchildren (including 
Caroline Hillemann ’88), and three great-grand¬ 
children. 

Marjorie Fielden Kimball. 83, of 

Raleigh, NC, on May 18,1999. With a 
masters in education, she taught English and Latin 
in Rochester, NY, for more than 30 years. She 
rerired to Winchester,VA, and then to Raleigh in 
1992. Preceded in death by husband Willard A. 
Kimball, she is survived by daughters Carol 
Reynolds, Beverly Carey, and Jan Kimball; sons 
Robert and Jack Kimball; and nine grandchildren. 

Arthur E Jacques, 81, ofWalnut Creek, CA, on 
April 15,1999. He enlisted in the Navy and served 
in the Pacific for three years during World Wir II. 
From 1948 until his retirement in 1981, he was a 
markedng executive for Towle Manufacturing 
Co.,the Newburyport, MA, silvermaking company. 


Shortly after graduation, he married Eleanor 
Jeschke ’39, who survives him. They had two chil¬ 
dren, Christopher Jacques and Nancy Jacques 
Lahait. 

Robert Malvern. 84, of Barre,VT, on June 9, 

1999. He was salutatorian of his class and majored 
in Latin and Greek. A former professor of Greek 
and Hebrew at Nashotah House Seminary in 
Nashotah, WI, he was a contributing writer to sev¬ 
eral Episcopal Church publications. He belonged to 
Christ Episcopal Church in Montpelier and was a 
longtime volunteer at the Vermont Historical 
Society. There are no known survivors. 

Mary Heckman Beach, 81, of Durham, 
NC, on April 13,1999. She served as dean 
of women at Antioch College, where her husband 
was on the faculty. During his tenure at Duke 
Univ., Mrs. Beach participated in many campus and 
community activities. She was president of the 
Lakewood School PTA, president of the Campus 
Club, a docent at the Duke Museum of Art, and 
worked at the Duke Medical Center. She is sur¬ 
vived by her husband, son Richard Beach, daugh¬ 
ters Margo Sullivan and Elizabeth Ann Beach, and 
five grandchildren. 


Phyllis Malcolm Mithassel. 82, of Seattle, WA, 
on August 11,1999. She lived in Alaska for 25 
years. With first husband Steve McCutcheon, she 
owned a camera shop and traveled throughout 
Alaska as a free-lance photographer. She lived in 
California with second husband Ted Mithassel, a 
master mariner, until his death in 1973. She contin¬ 
ued to enjoy traveling all over the world, did vol¬ 
unteer work, and was a life member of Soroptimist 
International. Survivors include one brother. 

Alice Chase Wells. 82, of Upper Montclair, NJ, on 
May 16,1999. Active in community affairs, Mrs. 
Wells was past president of the Norgate-at-Roslyn 
Garden Club of Roslyn, NY; a member of the 
Womens Club of Upper Montclair; past president 
of the Garden Club of Montclair; a trusteee and 
secretary of the citizens committee of the Presby 
Memorial Iris Gardens; and a member of the 
womens committee of the Montclair Art Museum. 
She is survived by husband Thomas M. Wells, 
daughter Deborah Dye, son Thomas Wells, three 
grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. 

Marjorie Marsh Veronneau. 81, of Ithaca, 
NY, on June 25, 1999. With an M.S. in 
political science from Southern CT State College 
(1969), she taught political science for several years 





. 


86 Middlebury Magazine 




























at New Haven Univ. and then history at the 
Hopkins School in New Haven, CT. She retired 
from Yale Univ. School of Medicine, where she was 
an administrative aide for 10 years. Predeceased by 
son Martin Boyd, she is survived by daughter Joy 
Veronneau and two grandsons. 

Irene McGaughy O’Connor, 81, Beverly 
Farms, MA, on June 28, 1999. She taught at 
the Perkins School for the Blind and for 33 years at 
the Shore Country Day School in Beverly. Together 
with her late husband, Raymond O’Connor, she 
operated a summer camp for children from 1941 to 
1974. After retiring she worked with infants at the 
Beverly Hospital Child Development Center. 
Predeceased by a son, Jackson O’Connor, she is 
survived by son Vail O’Connor, two granddaugh¬ 
ters, and a sister. 

Pauline Carleton Steuer, 79, of MiddleburyVT, 
on May 22, 1999. With a librarian degree from 
Columbia Univ., she worked in law libraries at 
Amherst College, OH State Univ., and the Univ. of 
OK. She received a doctorate from the Univ. of 
Miami (FL) Law School in 1963 and served as law 
librarian in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami until her 
retirement to Middlebury. Predeceased by husband 
Robert Steuer and by a sister, she is survived by an 
aunt, several nieces and nephews, and Middlebury 
cousins Eleanor Foote Cartmell ’31, Peter V. Foote 
’80, and Richard P. Foote ’80. Middlebury relatives, 
now deceased, include mother Kathleen Foote 
Carleton ’ll;sister Eloise Carleton Mercado ’50; 
aunts Estelle J. Foote ’20 and Sylvia Pastene Foote 
T9; uncle Ralph A. Foote *17; and cousins Emma 
Easton Towne T 1, Alice M. Easton T4, Bernice 


Benedict Benjamin ’42, and Janice Foote Guglin ’50. 

Audrey Hargreaves Timberlake. 80, of Amherst, 
MA, on July 29, 1999. She completed graduate 
work at Columbia Univ. and the Univ. of NH, 
taught high school English in Dover and 
Lexington, MA, and later managed the practice of 
her husband, Dr. Ralph M.Timberlake,Jr. She was 
an avid gardener and sang in church and commu¬ 
nity choruses. Besides her husband of 55 years, she 
leaves sons Ralph and Douglas, daughter Shelley 
Svoboda, four grandchildren, and twin great-grand¬ 
daughters. 

Marjorie Smith Storer, 79, of Brunswick, 
ME, on April 29,1999. With a master’s in 
library science from Simmons College, she estab¬ 
lished programs to provide books to small commu¬ 
nities in northern VT and NY, and worked in the 
libraries at the Dept, of Commerce (Albany, NY), 
Bowdoin College, Brunswick schools, and the 
Topsham Public Library. She helped develop a 
library system in the Philippines and was a found¬ 
ing member of the Brunswick area League of 
Women Voters, serving as secretary on the state 
board. She received an award from First Lady 
Barbara Bush for her work with Literacy Action in 
the DC area. Predeceased in 1985 by son Taylor, 
she is survived by husband James A. Storer, son Joel 
Storer, and one grandson. 

Ruth Montgomery Titsworth, 78, of 

Advance, NC, on June 13,1999. Before 
retirement to Seabrook Island, SC, she and her 
family lived in Boston and Pittsburgh. Her interests 
included church life at St. Clement’s Episcopal 


Church, hospital volunteering, opera board, and 
traveling. She is survived by husband Edwin J. 
Titsworth, daughters Carolyn Slavin and Tracy 
Moore, son Edwin Jr., and three grandchildren. 

Frederick E. Whitehouse, 80, of North Port, FL, 
on June 11, 1999. He was a photographer and 
newspaper editor in New England before moving 
to Severna Park, MD, where he was an on-site 
technician at the Project Mercury Tracking Station 
in the early days of the space industry. He was an 
engineering writer for several defense companies, 
retiring to North Port in 1985. Survivors include 
his wife of 57 years, Nancy Hall Whitehouse ’42; 
daughters Willow Whitehouse and Linda Crum; 
and three grandchildren. 

Robert Liebert III. 76, of Sanford, NC, on 
April 26,1999. A veteran ofWorldWar II, 
he was a B-29 pilot, receiving the Distinguished 
Flying Cross and the Air Medal. He worked with 
U.S. Customs for 33 years on the Canadian border 
in VT. Retiring to Sanford in 1978, he was a active 
member of Emmanuel United Church of Christ. 
Survivors include his wife of 56 years,Venila 
(Magoon); daughter Linda Liebert; and son Richard 
Liebert. 

Robert R. “Bobo” Sheehan, 76, of Middlebury, 
VT, on September 3,1999. A veteran ofWorld War 
II, he was a dive bomber in the Naval Air Corps. 

He coached football, baseball, golf, and skiing at 
Middlebury College from 1945 to 1967. His ski 
teams produced two national titles and 11 Eastern 
championships. In 1956 he coached the men’s 
alpine Olympic team. The Sheehan chairlift at the 






IN MEMORIAM 


RICHARD DOUGLAS '65 

December 31, 1942 - May 3, 1999 

Richard Douglas devoted much of his life to overcoming the 
frustrating barriers which prevent disabled people from leading 
normal lives. From the time he was diagnosed with muscular 
sclerosis in 1970 (five years after graduating from Middlebury), 
to the time of his death from cancer in 1999, he was commit¬ 
ted to making the personal and social changes necessary to 
maintain dignity and freedom despite his illness. His dedication 
made him a national spokesperson and advocate for the rights 
of the disabled. 

Before he could help others, Douglas had to overcome his 
own fears about being disabled. In 1997 he received an 
Alumni Achievement Award and gave a Twilight Lecture at the 
College in which he shared his personal experience. “I was 
confused, worried, and scared to death,” he said about the 
diagnosis. As hard as it was initially for him to accept his dis¬ 
ability, he soon realized that life does indeed go on. Douglas 
was inspired and encouraged by Ed Roberts in Berkeley, the 
leader of the “independent living” movement of the ’60s. 

Yet no amount of self-acceptance could override the fact 
that much of the world is simply unprepared (and occasionally 
unwilling) to deal with disabled persons. In this regard, 


Richard Douglas found his life’s 
work: to educate and transform 
the public perception of disabili¬ 
ty. He worked in Vermont, acting 
as director of vocational rehabili¬ 
tation for six years, later joining 
the President’s Committee on 
Employment of People with 
Disabilities Act a year after the 
adoption of the Americans with 
Disabilities Act. He was the first 
person with a disability to serve 
as the Committee’s executive 
director (1991-1995). Douglas 
focused on the necessity of allowing disabled people into the 
work force; he believed with all his heart in breaking down 
the barriers between disabled and non-disabled people by 
helping the disabled to regain their fundamental independ¬ 
ence. 

In response to an alumni inquiry in 1990, he wrote: “Not 
everything has turned out the way I planned or wanted, sure. 
Love today and looking forward to whatever comes along.” 

Richard Douglas is survived by his wife, Nancy Flinn; 
daughter Carrie Douglas; son David Douglas; stepsons 
Christopher, Jeffrey, Jason, and Aaron Flinn; mother and stepfa¬ 
ther Francie and Phillip Allen; two sisters; and three grand¬ 
daughters. 



Fall 





















Snow Bowl was named in his honor. He later 
owned the Reno (NV) Ski Shop and retired to 
Palm Springs, CA. During the summers, he contin¬ 
ued to live in Middlebury, where he presided over 
the Sheehan Family Classic GolfTournament at the 
Ralph Myhre course, with appearances by his 
LPGA Hall-of-Fame daughter, Patty. He is survived 
by wife Leslie (Ireland); sons Butch,Jack, and Steve; 
daughter Patty; siblings Rae Cummings and Jim 
Sheehan; seven grandchildren, and two great¬ 
grandchildren. See the memoriam to Bobo 
Sheehan, page 89. 

Ruth Taylor Wilcoxson. 76, of Naperville, 
IL, on July 20, 1999. She was editor of a 
weekly newspaper, the News-Record , in Maplewood, 
NJ, for several years, and was a media representative 
for Kroehler Manufacturing Co. in Naperville. In 
North Aurora, she was a claims adjuster for the IL 
Dept, of Unemployment Security for 17 years, 
retiring in 1995. An active member of Knox 
Presbyterian Church, she also served on the board 
of the Samaritan Interfaith Counseling Center. 
Survivors include daughter Lesley Wilcoxson, son 
Keith Wilcoxson, and four grandchildren. 

Janet Kraft West, 72, of Bainbridge Island, 
WA, on May 1,1999. Moving to the Seattle 
area in 1948, she taught English and journalism at 
Bainbridge High School, retiring in 1987. As a vol¬ 
unteer, she worked at human service agencies on 
Bainbridge Island and at ACLU in Seattle, she 
tutored Russian visitors, and was involved in an 
affordable housing program. Elected mayor of 
Bainbridge Island, she served for three and a half 
years, resigning 1997, when she broke her hip 
while traveling in France. Predeceased by husband 
Edward West and grandson Christopher Deaton, 
she is survived by sons Duncan and Malcolm, 
daughters Victoria and Nancy, and three grandchil¬ 
dren. 

George F. Wedge, 71, of Lawrence, KS, on 
June 5,1999. Before coming to 
Middlebury, he served in the Navy (1945-1948) 
and attended the Naval Academy at Annapolis 
(1948 to 1950).With a master’s in English and his¬ 
tory and a Ph.D. in English and Latin (both Univ. 
of MN), he joined the English faculty at the Univ. 
of KS, retiring in 1993. One of the founders of the 
linguistics dept., he was editor of Cottonwood 
Magazine and Press and advisory editor of Kansas 
Quarterly. He published numerous papers on the 
relationship of creativity, alcohol, and drugs. 
Survivors include wife Margaret Nasmith Wedge 
’52, son Philip Wedge, daughters Alberta Wedge and 
Louise Pennewell, and five grandchildren. 

Blair A. Powell, 66, of Chatham, NJ, on 
May 15, 1999. He retired in 1992 as a VP in 
the private banking department of Citibank in 
NYC, where he had started his business career 35 
years earlier. In 1992, he also retired from the U.S. 
Naval Reserve as a commander. He held a law 
degree from NYU Law School and was admitted 
to the NY State Bar. Surviving are wife Janet 
(Black), daughters Lauren Derrig and Lynne 
Delino, and four grandchildren. 

Jeffrey L. Tomash, 61, of New York, NY, 
on January 19,1999. He held a master’s in 
English from the Univ. of MI (1960) and taught 
French at the James Madison High School in 
Brooklyn, NY. 


Susan Whitlock Roesler. 58, of Boulder, 
CO, on May 24,1999, of cancer. In 1961, 
she married John O. Roesler, who was commis¬ 
sioned in the U.S. Marine Corps. Her husband was 
killed in action on January 26, 1968. Mrs. Roesler 
received her degree in anthropology and fine art 
from the Univ. of CO. As an artist, her works were 
shown in a number of galleries, including the 
National Gallery in Washington, DC, and the 
Denver Arts Museum. She established the Colorado 
Artists Registry in 1984 and served as the director 
until her death. Preceded in death by her husband 
and infant son Sean Roesler, she is survived by 
daughter Collin Culbertson and a sister. 

Margaret Roache Wenzel, 56, of 

Coventry, CT, on June 9,1999. With a mas¬ 
ters from Trinity College in Hartford, she was 
retired from teaching English at East Catholic High 
School in Manchester. She studied for many years 
at the Silvermine Guild of Artists. Survivors include 
daughter Jennifer LeLand, sons Scott and 
Christopher LeLand, two grandchildren, a sister, 
and her mother, Frances Roache. 

Frank J. Eppich. 41, of San Francisco, CA, 
on May 7,1994. He worked for Pacific 
Telephone, traveled extensively, and received an 
M.A. in economics (1984) from San Francisco 
State Univ. Avidly interested in the global economy 
and world politics, he was also involved in many 
causes, including the Harvey Milk Gay and Lesbian 
Democratic Club. He was employed by the 
Cardiovascular Research Institute of the Univ. of 
CA in San Francisco. He leaves his partner, Rick 
Cassaro. 

James E. Appleby III. 29, of New York, 
NY, on June 2, 1999. A 1987 graduate of 
Mechanicsburg (PA) High School, he majored in 
physics and music composition at Middlebury, 
where he was salutatorian of his class and elected to 
membership in Phi Beta Kappa. In New York City, 
he was employed in the human resources depart¬ 
ment of Doubleclick. He was a member of 
Mechanicsburg Church of the Brethren. Surviving 
are his parents, James E. and Susan Linn Appleby, 

Jr., and a brother, Mark D. Appleby. 

Ezra Andersen, 22, of New Marlborough, 
MA, late July, 1999. He was last seen July 20; 
his body was discovered in a wooded area near his 
home several days later. Cause of death had not 
been determined. A religion major at Middlebury, 
he was expected to graduate in May 2000. He is 
survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. David G. 
Andersen, and by siblings Nicholas, Jesse, and Merina. 

LANGUAGE SCHOOLS 

13 Virgie M. Bauer, M.A. French, 94, of 
>5 fcl Dover, DE, on April 12, 1999. She was a 
teacher of English and foreign languages from 1922 
until 1969. 

Esther Rosen Weiser. M.A. French, 101, 
of Sarasota, FL, on June I 1. 1999. She 
taught French and Spanish in New York City, retir¬ 
ing in 1961. 

Eleanor Fowler Delarede, English, 90, 
of Ojai, CA, on May 19,1999. She taught 
elementary, junior high, and senior high English in 
New York State. 


Charles A. Bruce. M.A. French, of 
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on December 
29,1998. He was an editor with the Canadian 
Broadcasting Corp. 

Nancy Scott Wiener. M.A. French, 77, 
of Doylestown, PA, on January 26, 1999. 

Mary Mouyous, M.A. French, ofWest 
Roxbury, MA, on August 1,1996. 

George Rubenfeld, M.A. French, ofWinnipeg, 
MB, on January 13, 1991. 

James R. Lyons, M.Litt., 73, of 
Yarmouthport, MA, on July 28, 1999. 

Charlotte Promersberger Johnston. 

M.A. German, 60, of Fallbrook, CA, on 
April 16,1999. She taught German, English, and 
social studies in Milwaukee until 1996. 

Angela Young Bosserman. Russian, 49, 
of San Leandro, CA, on January 12, 1998. 

Charles G. Lenaghan. S.J., M.A. Spanish, 
76, of Chicago, IL, on June 6,1999. An Irish 
Jesuit priest, he was the Spanish-speaking associate 
pastor of St. Philomena Catholic Church, where 90 
percent of the 700 families are Hispanic. 

Shirley S. Davis. English, ofWestwood, 

NJ, on April 10, 1999. She taught French 
and was a former head of Miss Fine’s Preparatory 
School, Princeton. 


FACULTY 

Page L. Edwards, Jr.. Bread LoafWriters’ 
Conference, 57, of St. Augustine, FL, on January 7, 
1999. He was an author and librarian in MA. 

Honorary Doctor of Laws (1987). John Minor 
Wisdom. 93, of New Orleans, LA, on May 15, 
1999. In nearly 42 years on the 5th U.S. Circuit 
Court of Appeals, Judge Wisdom ordered integra¬ 
tion at the Univ. of Mississippi and also joined 
decisions that eliminated racial discrimination in 
jury selection and voter registration in Louisiana. In 
recognition of his work. President Clinton awarded 
him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 
November 1993. 


ANSWERS 

TO TIME 

WHEN PUZZLE 56,t 

1.7, ,n. 

8. 5:00 

2. 1:00 

9. 3 a.m. 

3. midnight 

10. 8:00 

4. noon 

11. 12:30 

5. 1 1 a.m. 

12.2:30 

6. four o’clocks 

13. 8:00 p.m. 

7. 9 a.m. 

14. 8:30 p.m. 






















Middlebury Magazine 
























IN MEMORIAM 


REMEMBERING BOBO 

Robert R. Sheehan ’44 

September 9, 1922 - September 3, 1999 


by John Morton ’68 

It was an evening early in September 1964.1 had endured the 
anxiety of Freshman Orientation and had survived the terror 
of opening day classes, motivated almost entirely by anticipa¬ 
tion of the first organizational meeting of the ski team, the 
primary reason I had enrolled at Middlebury.The stuffy class¬ 
room in the field house contained a constellation of America’s 
brightest skiing stars: Gordi Eaton ’62, Roger Buchika ’66, 
Peter Ruschp ’66, Tommy Easton ’66, and others. Several had 
been collegiate champions, national team members, and even 
Olympic veterans. 

A white-haired man with a sunburned face sat at the front 
of the room, smiling as he bantered with the upperclassmen. 
After brief introductions and a few suggestions for condition¬ 
ing workouts during the fall, the coach singled out the incom¬ 
ing freshmen. 

“Well boys, as you can see, good alpine skiers are a dime a 
dozen around here, hah hah hah.. . .If you guys want to ski 
for Middlebury, you’d better train hard and learn to ski cross¬ 
country.” That was my introduction to Bobo Sheehan, and it 
was the best advice I’ve ever had. 

Growing up in Newport,Vermont, Bobo excelled at sever¬ 
al sports, but it was skiing that drew him to Middlebury. After 
a tour of duty as a Navy carrier pilot, he returned to 
Middlebury in 1945 and at various times coached football, 
baseball, tennis, and golf, in addition to his primary sport, ski¬ 
ing. The success of his Middlebury teams included 11 Eastern 
championships and two NCAA titles. He was selected to 
coach the U.S. Men’s Alpine Team at the Winter Olympics 
in Cortina, Italy. 

The most distinctive aspect of Bobo’s coaching style 
was his easy-going sense of humor. Early each ski season at 
Middlebury, when racers industriously waxed their skis, Bobo 
would casually inspect the progress of the freshmen. The expe¬ 
rienced upperclassmen waited quietly for the inevitable trap. 

“Boy, Skip, that looks like a good smooth coat. Just don’t 
forget to wax the groove.” 

The upperclassmen kept waxing, but the freshmen looked 
at each other in confusion, until someone asked,“Uh, Bobo, 
you want us to wax the groove?” 

Bobo’s response usually came over his shoulder as he 
strolled from the ski room. “Gee, 1 dunno Skipper, do you ski 
on the groove?” 

In February 1965, the Middlebury varsity beat a powerful 
Dartmouth team at their Winter Carnival in Hanover, by half 
a point. It was also a victory of coaching styles. Bobo was 


relaxed, almost carefree, 
and rarely rattled, even in 
the heat of competition. 

No doubt slamming dive 
bombers onto the pitch¬ 
ing deck of an aircraft car¬ 
rier at night in a storm 
helped to keep the stress 
of ski coaching in its 
proper perspective. 

In contrast, A1 Merrill 
was organized, disciplined, 
and carefully supervised 
every aspect of the impressive Dartmouth program. It seemed to 
us that Dartmouth spent hours testing waxes before every cross¬ 
country event, while Bobo would arrive minutes before the 
start, cork in whatever happened to be in his pocket, and send 
us to the race with the assurance, “Kick down hard, boys, and 
you can make it work.” 

Winning the Dartmouth carnival that year was a big deal. As 
white-coated waiters cleared plates after the lavish banquet, and 
the beautiful carnival queen took her place behind the awards 
table, Bobo leaned forward and rumbled, “Now listen boys, 
these Greenies always rub our noses in it when they whip us, 
so don’t you be afraid to let ’em know who won this carnival.” 

Gordi Eaton followed Bobo’s remark with an ominous 
threat, “Don’t bother coming back to this table if you don’t kiss 
the queen when she hands over your trophy.” With prizes for 
the top three finishers in the four events for freshmen and four 
more for the varsity, the carnival queen was looking pretty 
bedraggled by the time she picked up the final award, first place 
in the Alpine Combined. Gordi Eaton’s chair clattered to the 
floor as he sprinted to the front of the hall. Ignoring the trophy, 
the Middlebury captain swept the queen into his arms and 
headed for the door, as the Dartmouth men scowled. Bobo, 
however, beamed with satisfaction. 

A surprising number of Bobo’s athletes have maintained 
a lifetime connection to skiing, through business, coaching, 
or as master competitors. Anyone who raced for Bobo Sheehan 
can still hear that distinctive laugh and see his smile, an ever 
present reminder that skiing, first and foremost, should be fun. 
The key to Bobo’s coaching success, and the reason so many 
of us still thrive on the sport nearly a half century later, is that 
he showed us how to keep the joy in competition, even at 
die top level. 



Fall 89 


Midd Connection 

























(Letters continued from page 7) 


MCRERNON 

DESIGN • CONSTRUCTION • INTERIORS • FURNISHINGS 


We are proud of the recently completed renovation and 
addition to Rosie’s Restaurant in Middlebury. Here’s what 
Kevin Cummings, owner of Rosie’s has to say... 


“ Working with The McKernon Group during our recent renovation was an 
absolutely incredible experience. We had the challenge of remaining open 
while under construction and they not only did a superior job, but acted as 
gracious hosts, even helping some customers down the steps. The McKernon 
Group are truly gentlemen and ladies and it was good to work with them. ” 



THE McKERNON GROUP, INC. 

P.O. BOX 310 • BRANDON, VERMONT 05733 
888-484-4200 • www.MckernonGroup.com 


MIDDLEBURY 

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As a premier environmental college, 
Middlebury should have more courage 
(and faith in its intrinsic beauty) than to 
surrender to the perceived or actual mate¬ 
rialistic demands of graduating high school 
seniors. In other words, McCardells asser¬ 
tion that “better food, phones, and Internet 
links in every room, more complete health 
and counseling services, less spartan facili¬ 
ties” will help bring us “more than our 
share of the best students available” seems, 
in addition to being a sorry commentary, is 
a morally weak position. Self-reliance and a 
degree of asceticism have created some of 
the greatest souls and minds in human his¬ 
tory, not the pampering and hedonism 
epitomized by the new Grille (which, 
admittedly, is a lucious place to sip smooth¬ 
ies) and the eight new Greenwich-style 
social houses situated along Adirondack 
Row (which, admittedly, seem like they 
would be fun places to guzzle from kegs of 
Otter Creek brew). 

I would also add my voice to those 
who are offended by this magazine. The 
cover photograph of David Stoll (Spring 
’99) alone symbolized all that is wrong 
with the Ivory Tower which Middlebury is 
whitening with each passing year. The 
accompanying article was an abomination 
and, from what I can discern, not a fair and 
accurate portrayal of the professors work. 
While I find Stolls book mildly irritating, 

I find this magazine which tries so hard to 
convey a certain Utopian image of 
Middlebury even more disdainful. Editing 
out information about a gay alumnus’ 
“partner” is patently wrong, regardless of 
your views on homosexuality. 

Alexander Lee ’91 
South Royalton, VT 


A Responsibility to Lead 
by Example 

As graduates of Middlebury College and 
37-year residents of Addison County, we 
are deeply disappointed that the College in 
its recent growth process is not promoting 
or modeling values which we believe are 
crucial for the health and very existence of 
our local and global communitties. The 
construction of the new science building 
has only strengthened our concern. To 
what degree does the new science build- 


90 Middlebury Magazine 




























ing, or for that matter any other building at 
Middlebury, reflect the following issues: 
the true short-term and long-term cost to 
the world of the buildings construction 
and maintenance; the process, including 
information and awareness of the origin of 
the material used to build the building, the 
personal and environmental costs of their 
procurement, as well as the careful assess¬ 
ment that materials used are free of car¬ 
cinogens, mutagens, or endocrine dis¬ 
rupters; the source and quantity of energy 
used; the connectedness to place, commu¬ 
nity, and the larger web of life; the design of 
the building refleedng appropriate scale 
and style, and communicating harmony 
with the surrounding community; the 
engaging of students, faculty, staff, and 
interested members of the wider commu¬ 
nity in the design process. 

We believe that modeling is the most 
powerful form of teaching. If students are 
not reminded of the challenges which face 
the global community on a day-to-day 
basis, then, as expressed in an article, 
“Architecture as Pedagogy,” from Orion 
Afield ,“Students begin to suspect that those 
issues (climatic change, biotic impoverish¬ 
ment, and the unraveling of the fabric of 
life on earth) are unreal, or that they are 
unsolvable in any practical way, or that they 
occur somewhere else.” In conclusion we 
emphatically agree that, “More than any 
institution in modern society, colleges and 
universities have a moral stake in the 
health, beauty, and integrity of the world 
our students will inherit.” 

John Beattie '66 
Brennan Michaels '66 
Salisbury, VT 


LETTERS POLICY 

Priority is given to letters addressing issues discussed 
in the magazine. On any given subject we will print 
letters that address that subject and letters respond¬ 
ing to those first letters.Then we’ll move on to other 
topics. We try to print all letters, but if quantity 
exceeds space available, a representative sample 
appears. Letters may be edited for brevity or clarity. 
Send letters to: Letters, Middlebury Magazine, 
Meeker House, Middlelxiry College, Middlebury, 
VT 05753 


Correction 

In the summer issue the honorary degree 
recipients listed were February graduates. 
The May graduates included 75 magna cum 
laudes and 25 summa cum laudes. 



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Fall 91 










































CLASSIFIEDS 


* 


ANTIQUES 


American and European 
silver, furniture, decorative 
arts. Estates purchased. Stone 
Block Antiques, 219 Main 
Street,Vergennes,VT. (802) 
877-3359^ Daily 11-5. (Greg 
Hamilton ’79) Always buying, 
always selling. 


ART PRINTS 


Woody Jackson ’70: For 

information on Woody 
Jacksons Holy Cow and all of 
Woody’s great imagery please 
check us out on the web at 
www.woodyjackson.com or 
caH us at (802) 388-6737. 


BUSINESSES FOR SALE 


New England Businesses 
For Sale: Profitable, well- 
priced, desirable lifestyle 
opportunities. Manufacturing, 
hospitality, retail, distribution. 
Call Certified Business Brokers 
@ (800) 711-4212. 


BUY/SELL 


Wanted to Buy: Important 
American/French 19th/20th- 
century paintings/sculpture. 
David Findlay Jr. Fine Art (Lee 
Findlay ’85), 41 East 57th 
Street, New York, NY 10022, 
(212) 486-7660. 


REAL ESTATE 


Lake Champlain Home, 

guest cottage: $1,500,000. 
Vintage/Contemporary, mar¬ 
ble baths, near Middlebury: 
$359,500. Ask for: Deirdre 
Counter ’79 (800) 639-1763 
counted@realtor.com 

RE/MAX Champlain 
Valley Properties: Please 
contact us if you are interested 
in buying or selling in the 
Middlebury Area. 1-800-545- 
8380. www.remax-mid-vt. 
com 


LODGING 


Cornwall Orchards Bed 
and Breakfast: Comfortable, 
old Vermont farmhouse. Five 
double rooms all with private 
bath, guests’ living room with 
fireplace, full breakfast. On 
Route 30 in Cornwall, only 
three minutes from the College. 
Juliet Gerlin, (802) 462-2272. 
cornorch@together.net 

Idyllic historic inn, on quiet 
country lane, private baths, sep¬ 
arate guest house. 15 minutes 
from Middlebury, near Lake 
Champlain. Wood-burning fires, 
panoramic view of meadows, 
Adirondacks. Full breakfasts, 
book-lined library. (800) 746- 
2704. whitford@together.net 
www.whitfordhouseinn.com 

Heart ofVermont Lodging 
Association: one call for reser¬ 
vations and availability at over 
40 of the finest lodging estab¬ 
lishments in the Champlain 
Valley. (802) 388-0800. 
www.vermont-lodging.com 

Lilac Inn: Historic district 
mansion in unhurried, 
unspoiled, unforgettable 
Brandon. Nine elegant guest 
rooms. Known for extraordi¬ 
nary weddings, www.lilacinn. 
com (800) 221-0720. 


SERVICES 


The Cookie Express deliv¬ 
ers fresh-baked homemade 
cookies to family, friends and 
businesses throughout the 
U.S. Free brochure 1-800- 
300-0904. E-mail: cookies@ 
maine.rr.com 

Date someone in your 
league: Graduates and facul¬ 
ty of Middlebury College, 
the Ivies, Seven Sisters, MIT, 
Amherst, Williams. Meet 
alumni and academics. The 
Right Stuff 1-800-988-5288. 
www.rightstuffdating.com 


MAIL ORDER 


Middlebury College Flag: 

Last chance to order for 
Christmas with official old 
chapel seal, white on blue 
background, 3’x5’ highest qual¬ 
ity nylon, made in U.S.A. $60 
+ $2.50 shipping & handling. 
Send check with order please. 
Allow four weeks for delivery. 
Anthony N. D’Avella ’00 MC 
Box 3583, Middlebury College 
Middlebury Vermont 05753 
email: davella@middlebury.edu 
(802) 462-2046 or voice mail: 
(802) 443-4277vmail 

Green Mountain Gift 
Baskets ships quality Vermont 
gifts anywhere in the US. Free 
greeting card and 20% off if 
ordered before December 1st. 
1-800-613-4642. www.sover. 
net/~gmgb 


VACATION RENTALS 


Winter Park, Colorado: 3 

bedroom, 3 bath condo, out¬ 
door hot tub, $150-$225/day. 
P. Daukas ’76, (800) 755-6987 
ext 3896, paula_daukas@ 
urscorp.com 

Mad River, Sugarbush 
Area: Comfortable farmhouse 
for up to 20. Ski season: $400/ 
day, 2 day minimum. Matthew 
Her ’88, (978) 922-6903. 


VACATION RENTALS 


St.John. Quiet Elegance: 2 

bedrooms, pool, deck, spectac¬ 
ular view. (508) 668-2078. 

We have 2 winterized 
cabins on our Wyoming 
ranch, a luxurious 10 bed¬ 
room family compound (with 
help) on its own island in Lake 
of the Woods, Ontario, 

Canada, and in Argentina a 3 
bedroom home in Bariloche 
(Patagonia) and a 2 bedroom 
cabin on a nearby estancia. 
Piney Creek Sporting 
Properties: David and Susie 
ParkWeissman ’67 (307) 683- 
2806 pineyproperties@ 
wyoming.com 

Spacious 1800’s Charlotte 
farmhouse. Beautifully fur¬ 
nished, 3 baths, 4+bdr. Weekly 
$800. andreainvt@juno.com 
http://farmhouse, homepage, 
com (802) 482-4043. 

❖ ❖ ♦> 

Space reservation deadlines 

for placing classified ads 
during the year 2000 are: 

Winter: November 19, 1999 
Spring: February 22, 2000 
Summer:May 24, 2000 
Fall: August 25, 1999 

Please contact: 

Smart Communication, Inc. 


FIave you . . . 

A vacation home to rent? 
Lodging to offer? 

Real Estate for sale? 
Merchandise to buy or sell? 
Employment opportunities? 
Services to provide? 

Contact: 

Smart Communication, Inc. 
P.O. Box 283 

Vergennes, VT 05491-0283 
Telephone: (802) 877-2262 
fax: (802) 877-2949 
email: GetSmart@together.net 



92 Middlebury Magazine 



























LAKE CHAMPLAIN 


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extensive lake frontage, sandy beach, unsurpassed views of the lake and 
Adirondacks. Offered at $695,000. Also available, two private 10+ acre 
lots with 700' and 900’ of prime shore frontage, $325,000 and $375,000 
respectively. Only 20 minutes from Middlebury College! 




BILL BECK REAL ESTATE 
Coleen Beck, CRS 
800 - 639-1762 
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A Premier Vermont Residence 



Elegance in stone, graciousness in 
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Fall 93 

































































Burn Out the Old 

(BRING IN 

THE NEW) 


BY DREW 
SCHEMBRE '83 

I distrust New Year’s as 

A TIME FOR RESOLUTIONS. 
January first has never 
brought me much insight, 
except perhaps the thought 
that next year I ought to exer¬ 
cise more restraint. And 
although this year’s fin de mil¬ 
lennium celebrations promise to 
clean the slate for everyone 
and provide a polished spring¬ 
board to launch into the brave 
new world, I suspect, come 
08:00, 01/01/00, many of us 
will only brew a strong pot of 
coffee and face the chores of 
the day. 

For me, Labor Day still sig¬ 
nals the start of the real New 
Year. There’s something about 
the hint of fall and the short¬ 
ening light that says, “Brush off 
the sand, put the toys away, 
and do something productive 
again.” By the time August 
closes, in my mind I’m pack¬ 
ing up my dad’s station wagon 
and making the trek north to 
see what Middlebury has in 
store for me this time around. 

So I was surprised last fall 
not only to find myself back 
on the East Coast after nine 
years in the part of the coun¬ 
try where you can ski without 
ever sharpening your edges, 
but to be actually driving up 
the Thru way on Labor Day 
weekend. I was heading to 


















Hinesburg, where my friend 
Steve hosts his annual end-of- 
summer bacchanal. The party 
offered a chance to catch up 
with friends and bike on unin¬ 
terrupted country roads. I had 
moved to Manhattan from 
Utah the previous June and 
was feeling overcrowded and 
underventilated. Despite the 
crush of 8 million neighbors, I 
experienced more isolation in 
New York than any time since, 
well, freshman week. 

The centerpiece of this 
party would be a large bonfire. 
Into the fire would go your 
particular symbol of a failed or 
unfinished summer project. In 
doing this, you were released 
from any obligation to com¬ 
plete it and could then move 
on to the cooler months guilt- 
free. Planned to take a trip to 
the Pyrenees but a crisis at 
work squashed it? No prob¬ 
lem. Toss that Lonely Planet 
Spain on the fire! jBueno! 
Didn’t finish those Adirondack 
chairs? (The ones you had 
imagined you’d sit in a la 
Bread Loaf while you finally 
read Magic Mountain and 
Ulysses). Heft those badly cut 
slats—yes, just like that, oh yes! 
Instant absolution! 

I had collected a fair 
amount of my own flotsam 
over the past year. Why not 
jettison it as part of a grand, 
ceremonial purge? Slash and 
burn, then move on. 

My trip, like all good trips 
north, would take me through 
Middlebury. I hadn’t been 
through campus in several 
years and I became nervous 
about what I might find. Even 
the most beautiful campus 
can’t match the rarefied vistas 
of memory. 

But when I drove up 
College Street, the College on 
the hill was pretty much the 
way I’d left it. Staid fieldstone 
buildings with fresh white 


paint, separated by expansive 
rolling lawns. Each door a por¬ 
tal to memories, each window 
a glimpse at forgotten opti¬ 
mism, each walkway an untest¬ 
ed option. 

I parked in front of Proctor 
Hall and did the usual walk 
through campus, down the 
hill, past lecture halls and dor¬ 
mitories, trying to remember 
names and classes. The sense of 
awe hadn’t diminished. Wow, 
what a beautiful place! Did I 
appreciate it when I was 18? 

I walked over to Allen 
Hall, a little hesitant about 
revisiting that awkward fresh¬ 
man who entered a world 
where everyone else seemed so 
attractive and comfortable and 
talented. There, I encountered 
a string of SUVs, (today’s panel 
wagons), with anxious parents 
unloading their new colle- 
giates. About then I did the 
math. These first-year students, 
these radiant, excited new 
members of the class of the 
third year of the third millen¬ 
nium were exactly half my 
age. When I was entering 
Allen’s doors for the first time, 
they were in utero. When they 
reach my age, I’ll be close to 
retirement. Epochs shrank into 
a handful of graduations, eons 
compressed into the time it 
takes for bellbottoms to return. 

Back in the shadow of 
Proctor, I mounted my creaky 
road bike and took the bumpy 
shortcut through the cemetery 
where I used to read on warm 
spring days to take advantage 
of the solitude. Back out 
Route 30,1 passed the impres¬ 
sive new Center for the 
Performing Arts and the work 
on the new stadium and then 
rode over the hill (the symbol¬ 
ism of this descent was not lost 
on me), toward Cornwall.This 
was the route to the swim¬ 
ming hole at the quarry where 
half the school gathered one 


weekend at the end of classes. 
Did the D-8 really break into 
spontaneous a capella as if in 
some Annette Funicello 
movie? Then along the path to 
the Halfway House Diner 
where we drove many late 
nights after I finished bartend¬ 
ing at the Rosebud, for the 
three-egg, three-sausage, three- 
pancake breakfast ($3.00). 

The smell of manure on 
the plowed fields unleashed 
memories like the smell of 
Swann’s madeleines. But my 
thought kept returning to the 
incoming first year students. 
How old would they be when 
my kids reached this campus? 
This had become an academic 
question, since the closest I 
had come to marriage had just 
ended a couple of weeks earli¬ 
er on the Upper West Side, 
when I moved into a studio 
about the size of my sopho¬ 
more dormroom (which 
would cost yearly about twice 
my freshman tuition). It had 
been a turbulent four-year 
relationship, but during its 
many buccolic periods we 
named our kids and schemed 
at creating a flawless genera¬ 
tion. During one of these peri¬ 
ods, at Christmas the year 
before, I made her a jewelry 
box from an old cigar case 
from Mexico where we had 
traveled and lived the previous 
year. I stained and strengthened 
the delicate wood, and filled it 
with soft black felt. Inside I left 
one of the three expensive 
cigars that I had had to pur¬ 
chase to get the box. And a 
ring. She pondered the ring 
question for several months 
and returned the cigar when I 
moved out. 

Two hours later, exhausted 
as much from the memories as 
from the ride, I climbed Route 
125 toward campus. The sun 
dipped behind me, casting a 
long, big-wheeled caricature of 


myself, a Giacometti figure 
atop two great ellipses, stretch¬ 
ing toward the College. Ahead 
of me the blinking yellow light 
by Adirondack stood sentinel 
to the campus behind the 
crest. Not Gatsby’s green light 
on the distant dock, perhaps, 
but then this beacon flashed 
for those staring at 40. 

Caution. Don’t stop; continue 
slowly. 

I reached the party just as 
they lit the bonfire. Dead 
tomato plants, a broken canoe 
paddle, and a window frame 
went in to big applause. My 
bag held a couple of items I 
had intended to immolate. A 
photo of my ex, an invitation 
to our last party, an old bikini 
top, and the Te-Amo Robusto 
cigar. I imagined some dramat¬ 
ic display as I hurled each item 
on the pyre. There would be 
laughs and hoots and congrat¬ 
ulations from a group of guys 
who understood such things. 

Then I looked around in 
the fading light. My friends 
were no longer college stu¬ 
dents; in fact they have been 
adults for as long as the current 
new students have been alive. 
They didn’t need to see this 
puerile display. And despite the 
promises of cleansing, it would 
take more than the ignition of 
effigies to move beyond some 
things. Mostly time. I stuffed all 
of the items deeper into my 
bag except the Robusto, 
which I quietly lit with a stick 
from the side of the fire. Grow 
up.Take responsibility. Be kind. 
I took a long pull through the 
tart, chocolatey leaves, blowing 
a small cloud toward the west. 
As good resolutions as any, I 
thought, and whispered, 

“ Happy New Year! 1 

Drew Schembre is a gastroenterolo¬ 
gist in Seattle, Washington. He 
shares a house with a large, black 
Labrador retriever named Elvis. 


Fall 95 













Bread Loaf Diary 


BY DAVID 
WEINSTOCK 
BLWC ' 9 6 



Y THE TIME YOU READ 
THIS, I will have gradu¬ 
ated from America’s 
foremost literary boot camp, 
the Bread Loaf Writers’ 
Conference. If the muses are 
willing, and the South Branch 
of the Middlebury River does¬ 
n’t rise, I’ll be joining 200-odd 
writerly wannabes who will 
fork over $2,000 apiece for 11 
days of writing lessons from 20 
even odder alreadyams. 

Actually, wannabes is not 
the word. We don’t just wanna, 
we gotta. A few of us even 
show clarion signs of gonna. 
The “contributors,” as most 
Bread Loaf attendees are 
known, are selected on the 
basis of submitted manuscripts 
from an ever-growing appli¬ 
cant pool. With all those 
potential paying customers to 
choose from. Director Michael 
Collier deserves enormous 
credit for limiting and even 
reducing, to 10, the workshop 
student/teacher ratio, ensuring 
personal attention for all. 

This year, unlike 1996,1 
will not be one of those 10. In 
1999 I am officially an auditor. 
Each workshop has two audi¬ 


tor slots. Being an auditor 
imposes a small but important 
civil disability—I may not 
receive a private manuscript 


critique from Ed Hirsch. 
Fortunately, in the years since 
my last Bread Loaf tour, I have 
developed several other reliable 


sources for expert feedback on 
my work. Each workshop is 
led by a well-known senior 
writer—mine will be the poet 



96 Middlebury Magazine 


Illustration by Reinhold Lange 





















Ed Hirsch—assisted by a fel¬ 
low. A fellow has published 
one book; the senior writer 
many, in Hirsch s case six. 

Many of the faculty are 
celebrities, as poets and writers 
go, which is to say, not very 
far. No American poet is a 
celebrity in the true sense of 
the word, on the exalted level 
of, say Fran 1 )rescher. (If you 
know who she is, shame on 
you. Watch less TV and read 
more poetry.) 

Drescher is the Nanny, the 
screech-voiced protagonist in 
an embarrassing TV sitcom of 


the same name. In the first day 
or two after Princess Diana 
died in a car wreck, when it 
was still widely supposed that 
the accident had been caused 
by those pesky paparazzi, Miss 
Drescher, arriving at a movie 
premiere, emerged from her 
limousine to answer a TV 
reporters request for a com¬ 
ment. “The photographers are 
a terrible problem,” she said, 
pulling her nonfur wrap pro¬ 
tectively around her shoulders, 
“for those of us in The 
Celebrity Community.” 

The Celebrity 
Community! The Celebrity 


Community contains no 
poets. This despite the fact that 
The Celebrity Community 
has lately shown remarkable 
catholicity and inclusiveness in 
who may become, and remain, 
a celebrity. It is no longer nec¬ 
essary to be a movie star, a 
sports champion, or a 
Kennedy. Today Martha 
Stewart is a full-fledged 
celebrity, merely for perform¬ 
ing, albeit with more than 
common enthusiasm, the 
humblest of domestic chores. 

Martha yes, but poets, 
never. No matter how far this 


new liberality may extend, it 
will never reach down to the 
poets. Poets are not celebrity 
material. They are invisible to 
| paparazzi; their images do not 
register on film. They emerge 
from their own cars. They have 
no agents, no managers, no 
handlers. Poets all handle 
themselves. 

Would you like to take a 
famous poet to lunch? Just ask. 
The phone number is listed. 
The schedule is open. And if 
the poet, when reached, dis¬ 
plays the least hesitation about 
joining a importunate stranger 
for lunch, simply say these 


magic words: “My treat!” 

(On second thought, per¬ 
haps a poet might conceivably 
enter The Celebrity 
Community. Naturally, it could 
not be for writing poetry, only 
for some other, more celebrat- 
able, unique personal achieve¬ 
ment or lucky accident. 
Sending a series of letter 
bombs comes to mind, and has 
worked in the recent past. 
Receiving even one letter 
bomb can also be the ticket.) 

The real reason poets can¬ 
not be celebrities is that so 
many of them are teachers. For 


few poets can ever entirely 
quit their day jobs.You don’t 
sell poems; you give them 
away. Typical payment for 
allowing a respected national 
literary journal to publish your 
poetry is two free copies of the 
magazine. So poets teach. 
Which brings me to the 
perennially annoying question: 
“Can poetry be taught?” 

The question never seems 
to go away. As a student I was 
asked it at least once a month. 
As a teacher it comes more 
like once a week. In the wis¬ 
dom of middle age and early 
parenthood, I have finally 


learned to reply, almost polite¬ 
ly, “Why in the world would 
poetry be the only purposeful 
j human activity that cannot be 
taught?” 

The questioner, brought 
up short by my logic, always 
tries again, immediately 
reframing the question. “I 
mean, I know you could tell 
them how many lines in a 
sonnet, and what’s the rhyme 
scheme, and all that. But can 
you really truly teach Poetry?” 

That capital P on Poetry is 
the giveaway. It means that 
poetry is not an ability. Nor is 
it a vocational skill, like edit¬ 
ing, embalming, or embezzle¬ 
ment. Rather, it is an ineffabil- 
ity. Poetry, in the firm opinion 
of everyone who doesn’t write 
poetry and the most deluded 
three-quarters of those who 
do, is not something you cre¬ 
ate. It is something you already 
have. It is a state of grace, glo¬ 
rious but undeserved. It’s like 
the blues, like style, like class, 
like jazz. It is a shrug, a je-ne- 
sais-quoi. It is “If-you-don’t- 
know-I-can’t-tell-you.” It is a 
magical divine fluid, a mythical 
ichor supposed to flow in the 
veins and flood the internal 
cavities of The Talented 
Other. Who’s got it? Not me. 
Not you. Only those favored 
by, or born of, the gods. 

Once, I believed that crap. 
Sometimes I still do. But not 
this week. They can teach. I 
can learn. I’m going up the 
mountain tomorrow, and I’m 
not coming down until I can 
I write poetry. 


David Weinstock is a freelance 
writer living in Middlebury His 
poems, and more of his Bread Loaf 
Diary, are featured on the Web- 
based literary magazine, Riding 
the Meridian 
www. heelstone. com /meridian 


That capital P on Poetry is the 
giveaway. It means that poetry 
is not an ability. Nor is it a 
vocational skill, like editing, 
embalming, or embezzlement. 
Rather, it is an ineffability. 


Fall 97 
























NOTHING GOLD CAN 

by 'Robert Frost 1923 


Natures first green is gold. 
Her hardest hue to'hold. 
Her early leafs a flower; 
But only so an hour. 

Then leaf subsides to leaf. 
So Eden sank to grief, 

So dawn goes down to day 
Nothing gold can stay 


Frpni: The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Con^ryTatliemj COp&fcig&t A 
by Robert Frost. Copyright 1 *>23, © 1969 by Henry Holfond.Gomparty’, L,LC. , 
Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Coinpan>£LiL(v * ' ' ]